MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI, COLUMBIA THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MISSOURI The State Historical Society of Missouri, heretofore organized under the laws of this state, shall be the trustee of this state - Laws of Missouri, 1899; Revised Statutes of the State of Missouri, 2000, chapter 183. OFFICERS, 2004-2007 RICHARD FRANKLIN, Independence, President ROBERT G. J. HOESTER, Kirkwood, First Vice President JAMES R. REINHARD, Hannibal, Second Vice President NOBLE E. CUNNINGHAM JR., Columbia, Third Vice President DONNA G. HUSTON Marshall, Fourth Vice President HENRY J. WATERS III, Columbia, Fifth Vice President ALBERT M. PRICE, Columbia, Sixth Vice President and Treasurer GARY R. KREMER, Jefferson City, Executive Director, Secretary, and Librarian

PERMANENT TRUSTEES FORMER PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY BRUCE H. BECKETT, Columbia LEO J. ROZIER, Perryville H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla Avis G. TUCKER, Kansas City

TRUSTEES, 2002-2005 CHARLES B. BROWN, Kennett W. GRANT MCMURRAY, Independence CHARLES W. DIGGES SR., Columbia THOMAS L. MILLER SR., Washington COLIN LONG, Waynesville BONNIE STEPENOFF, Cape Girardeau JAMES R. MAYO, Bloomfield PHEBE ANN WILLIAMS, Kirkwood

TRUSTEES, 2003-2006 JOHN L. BULLION, Columbia BRIAN K. SNYDER, Independence JAMES B. NUTTER, Kansas City ARVARH E. STRICKLAND, Columbia BOB PRIDDY, Jefferson City BLANCHE M. TOUHILL, St. Louis DALE REESMAN, Boonville

TRUSTEES, 2004-2007 W. H. (BERT) BATES, Kansas City VIRGINIA J. LAAS, Joplin CHARLES R. BROWN, St. Louis EMORY MELTON, Cassville DOUG CREWS, Columbia JAMES C. OLSON, Kansas City WIDGET HARTY EWING, Columbia BRENT SCHONDELMEYER, Independence

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Eight trustees elected by the board of trustees, together with the president of the Society, consti­ tute the executive committee. The executive director of the Society serves as an ex officio member. RICHARD FRANKLIN, Independence, Chairman BRUCE H. BECKETT, Columbia DOUG CREWS, Columbia H. RILEY BOCK, New Madrid ROBERT G. J. HOESTER, Kirkwood CHARLES R. BROWN, St. Louis VIRGINIA J. LAAS, Joplin LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN, Rolla ROBERT C. SMITH, Columbia MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW

VOLUME XCIX, NUMBER 3 APRIL 2005

GARY R. KREMER LYNN WOLF GENTZLER Editor Associate Editor

LISA WEINGARTH Information Specialist

The MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW (ISSN 0026-6582) is published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298. Receipt of the MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW is a benefit of membership in the State Historical Society of Missouri. Phone (573) 882-7083; fax (573) 884-4950; e-mail [email protected]; Web site www.umsystem.edu/shs. Periodicals postage is paid at Columbia, Missouri. POSTMASTERS: Send address changes to MISSOURI HISTORICAL REVIEW, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298. Copyright © 2005 by The State Historical Society of Missouri

COVER DESCRIPTION: Thomas Hart Benton rendered the watercolor-and-ink drawing "The stumps there are out of the water at this stage" for the Limited Edition Club's volume of Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi published in 1944. The book, originally published in 1883, is an autobiographical account of Twain's early days as a cub steamboat pilot and of his return to travel the Mississippi River years later, after railroads had superseded steamboats and the river culture he had loved as a young man had all but disappeared. This and other original Benton watercolor paintings and drawings used to illustrate the book are on display in the Society's Art Gallery through May 13 as a part of Great Rivers: Artists Interpret the Mississippi and Missouri. EDITORIAL POLICY

The editors of the Missouri Historical Review welcome submission of articles and documents relating to the history of Missouri. Any aspect of Missouri history will be con­ sidered for publication in the Review. Genealogical studies, however, are not accepted because of limited appeal to general readers. Manuscripts pertaining to all fields of American history will be considered if the subject matter has significant relevance to the history of Missouri or the West.

Authors should submit two double-spaced copies of their manuscripts. The footnotes, prepared according to The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., also should be double-spaced and placed at the end of the text. Authors are encouraged to submit manuscripts, prefer­ ably in Microsoft Word, on a disk or CD. Two hard copies still are required. Originality of subject, general interest of the article, sources used, interpretation, and style are criteria for acceptance and publication. Manuscripts, exclusive of footnotes, should not exceed 7,500 words. Articles that are accepted for publication become the property of the State Historical Society of Missouri and may not be published elsewhere without permission. The Society does not accept responsibility for statements of fact or opinion made by the authors.

Articles published in the Missouri Historical Review are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, Recently Published Articles, Writings on American History, The Western Historical Quarterly, and The Journal of American Histoty.

Manuscript submissions should be addressed to Dr. Gary R. Kremer, Editor, Missouri Historical Review, State Historical Society of Missouri, 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201-7298; or e-mail [email protected].

BOARD OF EDITORS

LAWRENCE O. CHRISTENSEN PATRICK HUBER University of Missouri-Rolla University of Missouri-Rolla

WILLIAM E. FOLEY VIRGINIA J. LAAS Central Missouri State University Missouri Southern State University Warrensburg Joplin

ALAN R. HAVIG BONNIE STEPENOFF Stephens College Southeast Missouri State University Columbia Cape Girardeau

ARVARH E. STRICKLAND University of Missouri-Columbia CONTENTS

A SUMMER OF TERROR: CHOLERA IN ST. LOUIS, 1849 By Linda A. Fisher 189

JUDGE NAPTON'S PRIVATE WAR: SLAVERY, PERSONAL TRAGEDY, AND THE POLITICS OF IDENTITY IN CIVIL WAR-ERA MISSOURI By Christopher Phillips 212

SOUTHERN IDENTITY IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY MISSOURI: LITTLE DIXIE'S SLAVE-MAJORITY AREAS AND THE TRANSITION TO MIDWESTERN FARMING By Robert W. Frizzell 238

NEWS IN BRIEF 261

MISSOURI HISTORY IN NEWSPAPERS 262

MISSOURI HISTORY IN MAGAZINES 265

GRADUATE THESES RELATING TO MISSOURI HISTORY, 2004 271

BOOK REVIEWS 273

Wood, W. Raymond. Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition. Reviewed by William E. Foley.

Lofaro, Michael A. Daniel Boone: An American Life. Reviewed by R. Douglas Hurt.

Dempsey, Terrell. Searching for Jim: Slavery in Sam Clemens's World. Reviewed by Louis S. Gerteis. BOOK NOTES 277

James, Larry A. Historic Homes of Neosho.

Gilbert, Joan. Missouri Horses: Gift to a Nation.

Marshall, Howard Wight. Barns of Missouri: Storehouses of History.

Boxerman, Burton A., and Benita W. Boxerman. Ebbets to Veeck to Basch: Eight Owners Wlw Shaped Baseball.

O'Connor, Candace. Beginning a Great Work: Washington University in St. Louis, 1853-2003.

Bundschu, William B. Abuse and Murder on the Frontier: The Trials and Travels of Rebecca Hawkins: 1800-1860.

Burnes, Brian. Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times.

Bushnell, Michael G. Historic Postcards from Old Kansas City.

Robison, Elijah L. The Streetcar Strike of 1916-17: "Scabs, " Conspiracies, and Lawlessness in Springfield, Missouri.

Schroeder, Richard E. Missouri at Sea: Warships with Show-Me State Names.

WITH PEN OR CRAYON Inside Back Cover Courtesy of William E. Giraldin Joseph J. Mersman A Summer of Terror: Cholera in St. Louis, 1849

BY LINDA A. FISHER*

During the year 1849, two of the most horrific events in St. Louis his­ tory occurred: a devastating fire destroyed fifteen city blocks, and a cholera epidemic decimated the population, killing at least 4,500 individuals in a period of one hundred days.1 Many observers—physicians, journalists, and private citizens—left written descriptions of some of these events, but a journal by one individual chronicling that summer from beginning to end is a rare discovery. Joseph J. Mersman, a twenty-five-year-old German

*Linda A. Fisher, the chief medical officer of St. Louis County from 1984 to 2000, is a writer living in Annandale, Virginia. She received a BA from Rutgers University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, and a master's degree in public health from St. Louis University. The author, who has prepared an annotated edition of Joseph Mersman's diary, gratefully acknowledges support from the State Historical Society of Missouri's Richard S. Brownlee Fund, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

1 William M. McPheeters, "History of Epidemic Cholera in St. Louis in 1849," St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal 7 (March 1850): 97-120, concludes that 4,557 people died of cholera out of a total of 8,603 deaths. No government agency maintained a comprehensive death count during the 1849 epidemic, so mortality figures cited here come from McPheeters's

189 190 Missouri Historical Review

American immigrant who resided in St. Louis, wrote regularly in his diary, documenting the fear, grief, and anguish that characterized the summer of 1849.2 A young entrepreneur, Mersman recorded an ordinary man's reac­ tion to the crisis. His observations, along with epidemiological data derived from census reports and other published summaries, provide a powerful picture of that terrible summer.3 Mersman arrived in St. Louis in the spring of 1849, planning to start a business with twenty-four-year-old John Clemens Nulsen. The two young men had emigrated years earlier with their respective parents and siblings from what is now northern Germany and had met in Cincinnati, Ohio.4 The Mersman family, a widowed father with two daughters and three sons, emi­ grated from Damme, a farming community in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg (now Lower Saxony). The Nulsens—two parents, two daughters, and five sons—came from a long line of merchants in the village of Norten, in the Kingdom of Hanover. Both families had experience in manufacturing cigars, tables, which are similar to numbers reported by the St. Louis Missouri Republican. Cholera deaths were underreported, as noted in N. D. Allen Diaiy and Journal, 17 May 1849; Edward Bates, diary, 5 July 1849, Edward Bates Papers; Micajah Tarver to Solomon S. Sublette, 31 August 1849, Solomon Sublette Papers, all in Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. People died in such numbers that records could not be properly kept. Entire families perished, leaving no one behind to report the deaths to the authorities.

2 The John Henry Gundlach estate donated the Joseph J. Mersman Diary to the Missouri Historical Society. Gundlach, the son of a German immigrant, collected manuscripts dealing with St. Louis histoiy. Accessions for July 1926 and August 1926, Minutes of the Missouri Historical Society, 18 November 1925-14 December 1927, Missouri Historical Society Archives. 3 In addition to McPheeters's article, other published accounts of the St. Louis epidemic include Isaac H. Lionberger and Stella M. Drumm, "Cholera Epidemics in St. Louis," Glimpses of the Past 3 (March 1936): 45-76; Patrick E. McLear, "The St. Louis Cholera Epidemic of 1849," Missouri Historical Review 63 (January 1969): 171-181; Paul W. Brewer, "Voluntarism on Trial: St. Louis' Response to the Cholera Epidemic of 1849," Bulletin of the Histoiy of Medicine 49 (Spring 1975): 102-123; James Neal Primm, Lion of the Valley: St. Louis Missouri, 1784-1980, 3rd ed. (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1998), 154-158; James T. Barrett, "Cholera in Missouri," Missouri Historical Review 55 (July 1961): 344-354; William Hyde and Howard Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the Histoiy of St. Louis (New York: Southern History Co., 1899), 2: 680-683; and Harry M. Hagen, This is Our Saint Louis (St. Louis: Knight Publishing Co., 1970), 150-153. 4 Mersman traveled from Bremen to Baltimore in 1833; Nulsen made the same journey in 1842, following siblings who had immigrated in 1838 and 1839. The two families lived in neighboring blocks in Cincinnati at the time of the 1840 census. "Fredk Meisman [sic] and fam­ ily," Second Quarter 1833, p. 46, lines 30-34 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M596, roll 2), Quarterly Abstracts of Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Baltimore, Maryland, 1820-1869, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-1983, Record Group 85, National Archives; "Francis Nulsen and family, Ship Glisten' Passenger Manifest," 10 May 1842, p. 3, lines 59-65 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M255, roll 3), Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Baltimore, Maryland, 1820-1891, Records of the U.S. Customs Service, 1745-1982, Record Group 36, National Archives; Francis Nuelson household, p. 236, Sixth Census of the United States, 1840 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M704, roll 399); Henry Messman household, p. 235, ibid. A Summer of Terror 191

a popular method of smoking tobacco at the time.5 In 1842, older sons Anthony Nulsen and Henry Mersman established a retail tobacco shop, Nulsen & Mersman, on Main Street in Cincinnati and employed their sib­ lings, giving them experience in the business practices of their new country. Making and selling cigars, the immigrant families prospered in Ohio. After a few years, the younger brothers, Clemens Nulsen and Joseph Mersman, made plans to forge their own brand of success farther west, in the burgeon­ ing city on the banks of the Mississippi River. Clemens and Joseph began their partnership, also styled Nulsen & Mersman, in St. Louis on March 1, 1849. The two intended to earn their livelihood as whiskey rectifiers and wholesale tobacco dealers.6 Since spirits distilled from corn by various farmers differed greatly in taste and alcohol content, rectifiers distilled the product a second time to improve the flavor and increase the potency.7 Nulsen and Mersman expected to market their product to saloons, hotel bars, brothels, riverboats, and other places that served liquid refreshment.8 Raised as Roman Catholics, the men saw no ethical dilemma in basing their fortunes on the sale of alcoholic beverages. Ironically, several of Nulsen's siblings had converted to German Methodism shortly after arriving in Cincinnati and were, therefore, strict teetotalers. Even though three of the siblings had come to St. Louis as missionaries earlier in the 1840s, the com­ munity was large enough to absorb both types of Nulsens—the drinkers and the nondrinkers.9 Emigrants from Germany and Ireland accounted for about

5 American tobacco traveled from Baltimore to Bremen on the same ships that returned to the United States with immigrants. See Norbert Humburg and Joachim Schween, Die Weser: Einfluss in Europa (Holzminden: J. Mitzkat, 2000), 3: 32.

6 Joseph J. Mersman, diary, 16 August 1849. All quotations from the diary preserve Mersman's creative spelling, erratic capitalization, and imperfect grammar. Most of the journal was written in English, although Mersman practiced both French and German in his diaiy. Translated excerpts appear here marked [translated from French].

7 Rectifying whiskey, the process of distilling spirits to remove contaminants or to increase the alcohol content, was a common practice in the pre-Civil War era. See Gerald Carson, The Social History of Bourbon: An Unhurried Account of Our Star-Spangled American Drink (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1963), 66, 235-237; Leonard Monzert, Leonard Monzert's Practical Distiller: An Exhaustive Treatise on the Art of Distilling and Rectifying Spirituous Liquors and Alcohol (Bradley, IL: Lindsay Publications, 1987), 51-52, 64-68; Gary Regan and Mardee Haidin Regan, The Book of Bourbon and Other Fine American Whiskeys (Shelburne, VT: Chapters Publishing, 1995), 40-41.

8 Mersman, diary, 10 September 1849, refers to a brothel on Almond Street as a customer, and entries throughout the diary mention other customers. ' Francis Nulsen, a brother who remained in Cincinnati, introduced the Nulsen family to Methodist ideals. A sister, Amelia Nulsen Jacoby, her husband, Dr. Ludwig S. Jacoby, and another brother, Hemy Nulsen, came to St. Louis as Methodist missionaries. Their stories are summarized by Wade Crawford Barclay and J. Tremayne Copplestone in Histoiy of Methodist 192 Missouri Historical Review half of the city's population of 63,431 in 1849. With six wards and nearly five square miles in area, St. Louis extended west to Eighteenth Street (figure l).10 The city had doubled its population in the previous five years and continued to grow rapidly." The metropolis, however, was filthy. When Joseph Mersman first visit­ ed St. Louis, he commented in his diary, "What a muddy city! I never saw a richer and more plentiful collection of mud in my life."12 Sewers were non­ existent, storm water flooded basements, and residents dumped household garbage everywhere.13 "The streets here are in awful condition," Mersman complained.14 Tanneries, slaughterhouses, pig sties, and soap factories added waste to the debris that collected in alleys and yards.15 The natural topogra­ phy included many sinkholes where rain collected, forming stagnant ponds. Kayser's Lake in the north end of the city and Chouteau's Pond, south of Market Street, compounded the stench.16

Missions, vol. 3, Widening Horizons, 1845-95 (New York: Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, 1957), 982-998, and Paul F. Douglass, The Stoiy of German Methodism: Biography of an Immigrant Soul (New York: Methodist Book Concern, 1939), 50-56, 117, 127. See also Ludwig Jacoby Vertical File, Missouri Historical Society.

,0 Primm, Lion of the Valley, 146-147, 165-166; L. U. Reavis, St. Louis: The Future Great City of the World (St. Louis: C. R. Barns, 1876), 63; St. Louis Missouri Republican, 5 February 1849, p. 2, col. 4. Frederick A. Hodes discusses the ethnic composition of the wards in "The Urbanization of St. Louis: A Study in Urban Residential Patterns in the Nineteenth Century" (PhD diss., St. Louis University, 1973), 32-35.

" According to the St. Louis Missouri Republican, 25 March 1845, p. 2, col. 1, the popu­ lation of St. Louis in the spring of 1845 was 33,601. McPheeters, "History of Epidemic," states that the population in 1849 at the start of the epidemic was 70,000 (p. 105). Mersman was part of the urban growth described by Karen Halttunen in Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, 1830-1870 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982), 35-37.

12 Mersman, diary, 17 December 1848. 13 Robert Moore, "Sewerage and House Drainage in St. Louis," in A Sanitaiy Swvey of St. Louis: 1884, ed. George Homan (Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1885), 14; St. Louis Daily New Era, 8 May 1849, p. 3, col. 1; "Proceedings from the City of St. Louis Committee of Public Health," 3, 7 July 1849, Missouri Historical Society.

14 Mersman, diary, 8 July 1849.

15 Bette Godwin, "The Saint Louis Cholera Epidemic of 1849 as it Appeared in the Newspapers" (MA thesis, St. Louis University, 1951), 8; M. Lilliana Owens, The St. Louis Hospital, 1828 (St. Louis: St. Louis Medical Society, 1965), 24-25. " In 1842 city engineer Henry Kayser unsuccessfully attempted to create a sewer system by using the natural drainage of sinkholes to drain storm water from the downtown streets. When a pit located near Tenth and Biddle Streets became clogged with refuse, people dis­ paragingly called it "Kayser's Lake." South of Market Street, Chouteau's Pond extended from Eighth Street to the western edge of the city. Created by Pierre Laclede in the late eighteenth century by damming Mill Creek, the body of water was hopelessly polluted by 1849. Moore, A Summer of Terror 193

FIELDS !

O Clly Wards • Areas destroyed by f

Andrea Myles, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Figure 1. City of St. Louis Wards, 1849 The city's public water supply was in its infancy in the late 1840s. A few households in the Third and Fourth Wards obtained water from a system of hydrants supplied by the Mississippi River, but most people preferred to use their own wells and springs if they had them. Many households shared pumps with neighbors. The murky water from the river compared poorly with the clear liquid that came from backyard wells. Although privies stood near the wells, no one recognized the dangers of contamination.17 After Mersman and Nulsen arrived in St. Louis, they set about opening their new business on Third Street in the center of the city. They negotiated a thirty-year lease from Peter Lindell and contracted for the construction of a store, with living space on the second floor. At first, Mersman ate meals at the City Hotel and slept at Nulsen's residence on Main Street in the Fourth Ward. Nulsen, married to Albertine Creuzbauer, had wealthy in-laws with a

"Sewerage," 15; Thomas Washeck, "The Development of a Sewer and Drainage System for St. Louis," Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District; Primm, Lion of the Valley, 145-146, 154, 157; John P. Dietzler, "Major General Samuel Ryan Curtis—City Engineer," Missouri Historical Review 51 (July 1957): 359-360.

17 William B. Schworm, History of Water Supply in the St. Louis Area: St. Louis Water Works (St. Louis, 1968), 1-4; Godwin, "St. Louis Cholera Epidemic," 8; John C. Pritchard, The St. Louis Water Works: A Histoiy of a Century ofSeiyice (St. Louis, 1933), 18-40. The dangers were well recognized by the time James Leete and Robert Moore wrote their report, The Sanitary Condition of St. Louis, with Special Reference to Asiatic Cholera (St. Louis: Commercial Club of St. Louis, 1885), 6-15. 194 Missouri Historical Review

John Clemens Nulsen, ca. 1895

XjfiffSiVZ.*-',--- •••-

Special Collections, St. Louis Public Library twenty-acre farm in Carondelet, then a separate community eight miles south of the St. Louis courthouse.18 A bachelor, Mersman frequented the theater as often as his limited time and budget would permit. His diary provides a view of the urban lifestyle enjoyed by single men of the period. Smoking, drinking, and dancing con­ sumed his leisure hours.19 After attending his first performance in St. Louis, a dance concert by the Monplaisir Troupe, Mersman gushed enthusiastically, comparing what he had seen to the fashion in Cincinnati. "The Ladies here are far more dressy than in [Cincinnati] and dress much more lasciviously, their bubbies are quite exposed. I have no objections. Conquests must be easier here to make."20

18 Mersman, diary, 25 March, 7,22 April, 6 May 1849. See also E. D. Kargau, Mercantile, Industrial and Professional St. Louis (St. Louis: Nixon-Jones, 1902), 285-287. Frederick Creuzbauer, a retired artillery captain from Baden, had come to the United States in 1838, bring­ ing his wife and six children. "Capt. Carl F. Crewsbaur [sic] and family, Ship Kutusoff Passenger Manifest," 22 June 1838, p. 1, lines 6-9 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M259, roll 16), Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at New Orleans, 1820-1902, Records of the U.S. Customs Service, 1745-1982, Record Group 36, National Archives.

" For a thorough discussion of this lifestyle see Howard P. Chudacoff, The Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999). Mersman's activities typified sporting men as described by Timothy J. Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992), 92-116.

20 Mersman, diaiy, 22 April 1849. French ballet performers Adele and Hyppolyte Monplaisir toured the United States, 1847-1853. George Odell, Annals of the New York Stage (New York: AMS Press, 1970), 5: 335, 384, 412, 428, 429; St. Louis Daily New Era, 9 April 1849, p. 3, col. 1. A Summer of Terror 195

For a few months, Mersman's business activities prevented him from pursuing feminine companionship. He wrote, "Do not care to go out or make any acquaintances just now. after our new business is established a little and we are a little more favourably known, acquaintances are more advanta­ geously made. I shall then cease to be a Hermit."21 Meanwhile, a disaster was brewing as ships transported emigrants infected with cholera—seemingly healthy carriers as well as deathly ill travelers—from the lands on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean.22 During the nineteenth century, cholera spread repeatedly from the Ganges Valley to the rest of the world, causing major American outbreaks in 1832, 1849, and 1866.23 International events made the epidemic of 1849 especially disastrous: famine in Ireland and political upheavals in Germany and Austria forced thousands to immigrate to the United States.24 In addition, the California gold rash lured many people across the country.25 These migrations fostered the spread of disease in two ways: carriers transported germs to distant places, and inadequate food and rest made travelers especially susceptible to illness. It is now known that cholera is spread through food or water contaminated with human waste. The bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, produces a toxin that results in abdominal pain, cramps, massive diarrhea, vomiting, and rapid dehy­ dration. The incubation period varies from a few hours to fivedays , and infect­ ed individuals can progress to circulatory collapse and death within hours.26

21 Mersman, diary, 15 April 1849. 22 The cholera pandemic entered the United States in 1848 through New York and New Orleans. Alfred S. Evans and Philip S. Brachman, eds., Bacterial Infections of Humans: Epidemiology and Control, 2nd ed. (New York: Plenum Medical Book Co., 1991), 207-208. See also Dhiman Barua and William B. Greenough III, eds., Cholera (New York: Plenum Medical Book Co., 1992); Kaye Wachsmuth, Paul A. Blake, and Orjan 01svik, eds., Vibrio Cholerae and Cholera: Molecular to Global Perspectives (Washington, DC: ASM Press, 1994).

23 Lionberger and Drumm, "Cholera Epidemics," 45-76. Charles Rosenberg summarizes the epidemics in The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962). See also J. S. Chambers, The Conquest of Cholera: America's Greatest Scourge (New York: Macmillan, 1938), 234-239.

24 William Barnaby Faherty, The St. Louis Irish: An Unmatched Celtic Community (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2001), 65-66; Primm, Lion of the Valley, 164-165. 25 Harry F. Dowling, Fighting Infection: Conquests of the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977), 7; Edwin M. Snow, "Is Asiatic Cholera Contagious?" in Tracts for the People (Providence, RI, n.p., 1865); Robert Pollitzer, Cholera (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1959), 845; Mitchel Philip Roth, "The Western Cholera Trail: Studies in the Urban Response to Epidemic Disease in the Trans-Mississippi West, 1848-1850" (PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993); Norman Longmate, King Cholera: The Biography of a Disease (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1966).

26 Numerous medical publications discuss the illness, among them Patrick Manson, P. E. C. Manson-Bahr, and Dion R. Bell, Manson's Tropical Diseases, 19th ed. (London: Bailliere Tindall, 1987), 259-272; J. B. Kaper, J. G Morris Jr., and M. M. Levine, "Cholera," Clinical 196 Missouri Historical Review

Cholera can transform a healthy person into a pulseless body with astonishing speed.27 The blood vessels contain so little fluid that the pulse cannot be felt, although the heart is still beating.28 Some people with Vibrio cholerae exhibit no symptoms or experience only mild diarrhea. Thus, individuals who appear healthy can spread the germs to others.29 Without careful hand washing, a process both unappreciat­ ed and inconvenient in 1849, the bacteria can quickly contaminate the food and beverages in a city. Modern physicians treat cholera with fluids, either orally or intravenous­ ly, but without such treatment, half the cases result in death. In Mersman's time, most doctors treated cholera by bleeding or purging patients, the opposite of what is required by human physiology to recover from the illness.30 They also prescribed botanic medicines such as camphor, capsicum, castor oil, pepper, opium, and alcohol and metallic therapies such as calomel, a compound of mer­ cury. The lack of effectiveness of these treatments did not curtail enthusiasm for the drags, and advertisements for patent and proprietary medicines filled newspapers with unproven claims of their cholera-fighting properties.31

Microbiology Review 8 (January 1995): 48-86; Marcia B. Goldberg, "Infections Due to the Enteric Pathogens Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, Yersinia, Vibrio, and Helicobacter," in WebMD Scientific American Medicine, ed. David C. Dale and Daniel D. Federman ([S.I.]: WebMD, 2002), sec. 7, chap. 9: 11.

27 The symptoms of cholera observed by 1849 physicians appear in R. D. Grainger, John Sutherland, and James Wynne, Report on the Epidemic Cholera of 1848 & 1849 (London: W. Clowes & Sons, 1850), 6. See also Milo Custer, "Asiatic Cholera in Central Illinois, 1834- 1873," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 23 (April 1930): 160; Oscar Felsenfeld, The Cholera Problem (St. Louis: W H. Green, 1967), 57-62; S. X. Ball, Discovery of the Cause and Cure of Cholera (New York: S. X. Ball, 1850), 5.

28 Caroline W. Berry, "Cholera in Kentucky," Journal of American Histoiy 7 (Oct/Dec 1913): 1429; Dr. Jameson et al., Cholera! Its Symptoms, Remedies, and Preventatives, Containing Particular Instructions in Reference to the Different Stages of the Disease (New York, 1849), Reinhard S. Speck Collection, Kalmanovitz Library, University of California, San Francisco; Report of the Committee on Internal Health on the Asiatic Cholera, Together with a Report of the City Physician on the Cholera Hospital (Boston: J. H. Eastbum, 1849): 30-37.

29 J. de Araoz et al., Principles and Practice of Cholera Control (Geneva: World Health Organization, 1970), 11, 26; Nottidge Charles MacNamara, A Treatise on Asiatic Cholera (London: John Churchill and Sons, 1870), 117-128.

30 Barrett, "Cholera in Missouri," 353-354; McPheeters, "History of Epidemic," 113-114; I. Winslow Ayer, Popular Hand Book Upon Hie Cure and Prevention of Cholera, Cholera Morbus, Dysentery, and Cholera Infantum (Cincinnati: Cincinnati News Company, 1873), 20- 32, Library of Congress. For a summary of nineteenth-century cholera treatments see Mitchel Roth, "Cholera Summer: Independence, St. Joseph, and the Path of Contagion," Gateway Heritage 15 (Summer 1994): 27.

31 McPheeters, "History of Epidemic," 113; Primm, Lion of the Valley, 155; Roland Lanser, "The Pioneer Physician in Missouri, 1820-1850," Missouri Historical Review 44 (October 1949): 31-47; St. Louis Daily New Era, 9 May 1849, p. 3, col. \;St. Louis Missouri Republican, A Summer of Terror 197

Although the cause of cholera was known by the 1880s, its origins were still disputed in 1849.32 Some doctors blamed contagion, where direct contact led to illness, which explained the spread of diseases such as smallpox and measles.33 Quarantine controlled these diseases, but cholera appeared to be different. In many instances, a person fell ill without having apparent contact with another case. As a result, many doctors believed that miasmas, foul- smelling vapors from decomposing organic matter, caused cholera.34 According to that construct, Chouteau's Pond and Kayser's Lake were public health hazards, and the use of disinfectants in the home and yard could ward off disease.35 Some blamed cholera on other factors—dietary indiscretions, alcohol consumption, and even the wrath of God.36 Because immigrant pop­ ulations suffered high rates of illness, cholera became an excuse for ethnic

11 July 1849, p. 3, col. 7-8. Calomel was nevertheless enthusiastically prescribed, as described by Charles Richardson, The Cholera: Its Cause, Prevention, and Cure (New York: Appleton, 1849). William McPheeters describes many cholera treatments in "The Cholera Epidemics," in One Hundred Years of Medicine and Surgeiy in Missouri, ed. Max A. Goldstein (St. Louis: St. Louis Star, 1900), 73-76.

32 John Snow, Snow on Cholera (New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1936); Charles- Edward Amory Winslow, The Conquest of Epidemic Disease: A Chapter in the Histoiy of Ideas (New York: Hafher Publishing Co., 1967); Alfred S. Evans, Causation and Disease: A Chronological Journey (New York: Plenum Medical Book Co., 1993); Francois Delaporte, Disease and Civilization: The Cholera in Paris, 1832 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986), 161-165.

33 Richard J. Evans, Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years, 1830- 1910 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), 231-236, provides a discussion of the contagion vs. miasma theories. See also R. J. Morris, Cholera: 1832: The Social Response to an Epidemic (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1976), 176-184; Winslow, Conquest of Epidemic Disease, 250- 253; Bernard M. Byrne, An Essay to Prove the Contagious Character of Malignant Cholera (Philadelphia: Childs & Peterson, 1855).

34 Custer, "Asiatic Cholera," 145. The nearly simultaneous appearance of cholera in New York, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Lexington suggested to some that the plague was wind-borne. See also Berry, "Cholera in Kentucky," 1431.

33 St. Louis Daily New Era, 9 May 1849, p. 3, col. 1. 36 Since many of the cases were immigrants, it was easy to blame food. The Irish con­ sumed corned beef and cabbage; the Germans ate sauerkraut and drank beer. Many people believed that such combinations were toxic and viewed cholera among immigrants as confir­ mation of that hypothesis. For example, in "History of Epidemic Cholera in St. Louis in 1849," McPheeters blamed the first case on the ingestion of "sour krouf' (pp. 98-99). Barrett, "Cholera in Missouri," 349-350; "Record of Medical Science: Contagiousness of Asiatic Cholera," St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal 6 (March 1849): 435-440; Morris, Cholera: 1832, 136- 139; Orville Dewey, A Sermon on the Moral Uses of Pestilence, Denominated Asiatic Cholera: Delivered on Fast-day, August 9, 1832 (New-Bedford, MA: B. T. Congdon, 1832). Predisposing influences to epidemic cholera are described in detail by George Melksham Bourne, Cholera Conquered: Guide to the Prevention and Cure of Epidemic Cholera, Diarrhea, Dysentery, etc. (New York: Fowlers & Wells, 1849). See also Samuel Lee Bigelow, Treatise on Epidemic Cholera (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1849). 198 Missouri Historical Review

German Maritime Museum, Bremerhaven, Germany The six-week journey from Europe to the United States forced immi­ grants into close living conditions that fostered the spread of disease. intolerance.37 The ill will felt toward newly arrived Europeans was manifest­ ed by social exclusion, offensive slang, and, ultimately, street violence. Mersman's arrival in St. Louis coincided with the cholera onslaught. As he disembarked from the steamboat Thomas Jefferson to join the throng on the levee, he came into contact with recent immigrants, fortune-hunting prospectors—and cholera—traveling upriver from New Orleans.38 An out­ break had started there prior to Christmas 1848, and cases appeared soon afterward in St. Louis. Beginning the first week of January 1849, newspapers reported cholera cases in the Fomth Ward neighborhood that would become Mersman's home. By the end of the month, doctors had tallied 38 cholera deaths. In February, cold weather delayed the arrival of additional cases, and only 20 cholera deaths occurred. Bracing for an outbreak of disease, the St. Louis City Council voted to start the city's first sewer project. Although the Missouri legislature approved the measure on March 12, completion lay far in the future.39

37 Intolerance continued throughout the century, as described by Alan M. Kraut in Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the "Immigrant Menace" (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995) and Rosenberg, Cholera Years, 136-142.

38 William D. Jenkins, "The Cholera in 1849," Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 2 (1903): 272. 39 McPheeters, "History of Epidemic Cholera," 98-99; Mersman, diary, 26 February 1849; Animal Report of the Sewer Commissioner For the Fiscal Year Ending April 8, 1878 (St. Louis, 1878), 18. Throughout the epidemic, deaths occurred among people who had no survivors to report to authorities or after local residents had fled to other places in a vain effort to escape death. A Summer of Terror 199

As spring returned, crowded steamboats arrived daily in St. Louis, dis­ charging hundreds of travelers. With limited sanitary facilities onboard, cholera spread rapidly among the passengers. Scores became ill, and many died en route or soon after their arrival. Those who died while onboard were cast into the river or buried in shallow graves on shore.40 Because many new arrivals had neither money nor homes, cholera cases ended up in the city's three hospitals: St. Louis Hospital, founded by the Sisters of Charity in 1828; the City Hospital, started in 1845 with public money; and the Hospital for Invalids, a private sanitarium established in 1848.41 The cholera death toll reached 68 in March and 131 in April. As the weather grew warmer, the numbers of sick and dead increased. In May, Mersman, though focused on setting up his business, began to mention the fatalities around him. "The great Plague of the Year, cholera, is driving every Country [person] and Merchants from surrounding cities away. The city looks like a desert compared to its usual animated appearance. Last week ending the 6th there were 78 deaths from it, altogether 173. This week end­ ing yesterday 278 deaths, 189 from cholera. People parting for a day or so, bid farewell to each other. My Partners familly are fortunately in the Country. I and Clemens sleep in the same bed, in Case of a sudden attack, to be with­ in groaning distance."42 The Creuzbauer family, Nulsen's in-laws, fled the city, as did many oth­ ers, and Nulsen and Mersman visited them in Carondelet on weekends.43 By mid-summer, Mrs. Creuzbauer retreated even farther from St. Louis, to her residence in Hillsboro in Jefferson County, some forty-five miles distant. Many institutions halted normal functions. The circuit court suspended oper­ ations, St. Louis University cancelled classes, and the post office shortened its hours of operation.44

40 Custer, "Asiatic Cholera," 157. 41 During this era, hospitals served the poor while physicians made house calls on those who could pay. Advertisements for medical care at the Hotel for Invalids appeared in the St. Louis Missouri Republican, 3 January 1849, p. 1, col. 5, 26 June 1849, p. 2, col. 1. See also Lionberger and Drumm, "Cholera Epidemics," 59; Owens, St. Louis Hospital, 25; Lanser, "Pioneer Physician," 37.

42 Mersman, diary, 13 May 1849. 43 Ibid., 13, 20 May 1849. For example, retired businessman Henry Shaw retreated to build his country house, now the site of the Missouri Botanic Garden, a safe distance outside the city. William Barnaby Faherty, Hemy Shaw, His Life and Legacies (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987), 60-65.

44 Mersman, diary, 6, 20 May, 3, 19, 25 June 1849; City of St, Louis Circuit Court, Record Book 1849-1850, 19: 159, Civil Courts Building, St. Louis; St. Louis Missouri Republican, 28 June 1849, p. 2, col. 2,14 July 1849, p. 3, col. 1. See also Joseph P. Donnelly, "A Silver Crown for the Statue of the Virgin," Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 5 (April 1949): 207-210. 200 Missouri Historical Review

Theater audiences dwindled. "The Theatre was almost empty," reported Mersman after one performance in early May. "3 Ladies in the whole House." A month later, Mersman counted only two women in the audience, adding slyly, "but, very fortunately, handsome representatives."45 James Barry, elected on April 2 as the twelfth mayor of St. Louis, called for a public meeting on May 14 to discuss measures to contain the outbreak.46 Three days later, however, a huge fire that spread from the steamboat White Cloud and incinerated more than four hundred buildings diverted everyone's attention. Mersman reported: "It Commenced on Thursday night about 10 oclk, before the inhabitants knew precisely its whereabouts. ... the flames continued spreading until 24 steamers were no more, all the Mdse on the Levee was burnt. The burning stuff on the Levee set fire to the buildings. Suffice to note that by dawn of day 15 entire blocks were destroyed." Three firemen lost their lives fighting the blaze, and the financial losses approached $6,000,000. Nulsen and Mersman's store escaped the flames, and a few days later, with rental property at a premium, they sold the lease on the property for a profit. They planned to move into their new commercial building by July l.47

45 Mersman, diary, 13 May, 10 June 1849. 46 Walter B. Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1764-1909 (St. Louis: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1909), 1: 134; St. Louis Daily New Era, 9 April 1849, p. 3, col. 1. The city council called for screening arriving travelers for disease and cleaning up yards and premises in the city. See St. Louis Missouri Republican, 14 May 1849, p. 2, col. 1, and St. Louis Daily Reveille, 16 May 1849, p. 2, col. 1.

47 St. Louis Daily New Era, 15 May 1849, p. 1, col. 7; "St. Louis Clippings," 5: 98, and "Historic Houses," 10: 84, 84a, 85a, both in Missouri Historical Society; St. Louis Missouri Republican, 21 May 1849, p. 2, col. 2-3; Mersman, diary, 20 May, 3 June 1849. 1849 Fire in St. Louis SHSMO 026721

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Those who believed in miasmas hoped that the conflagration would puri­ fy the air, sanitize the ground, and end the epidemic. But in the weeks that followed, cholera cases continued to mount as officials addressed the prob­ lems caused by the wrecked steamboats, burned buildings, and destroyed businesses. During May, 517 people died of cholera. The majority were new arrivals, but many long-term residents of the city also died.48 One-third of the dead were children aged five years or younger. Several diagnoses used by doctors in 1849 could actually have been "Asiatic cholera" (table 1). The constellation of signs and symptoms caused by Vibrio cholerae was known by a dozen terms, including "summer com­ plaint," "bloody flux," and "dysentery."

TABLE 1. TERMS USED FOR DIARRHEAL DISEASE, 1850 Bloody Flux Cholera nostra Bowels, disease of Cholera spasmodica Cholera Cholera sporadica Cholera, Asiatic Diarrhea Cholera asphyxia Dysentery Cholera infantum Inflammation, bowels Cholera morbus Sailor's Fever Cholera nervous Summer Complaint Source: Seventh Census of the United Slates, 1850, Mortality Schedule of Missouri, Census Collection, Missouri Historical Society.

The mortality schedule for the 1850 federal census, listing all the deaths in the twelve months preceding June 1, 1850, reveals the impact of the epi­ demic. Although the reporting period includes only two months (June and July 1849) when cholera raged, the schedule provides data for the entire city. The enumeration listed 2,119 deaths attributed to diarrheal disease (table 2). At least 1,438 of the deaths, 68 percent, occurred within twenty-four hours of the onset of illness, and 1,797, or 85 percent, occurred within three days of diagnosis.49 Cholera killed quickly, a characteristic that terrified people. In June 1849, the number of deaths skyrocketed to over 80 per day, and Mersman wrote: "Another week has been added to the number allotted to me. Many of my fellow beings have gone to that bourn from whence no traveller returns, the Cholera has this week added at least 400 victims to the large

48 Barrett, "Cholera in Missouri," 347; St. Louis Missouri Republican, 25 May 1849, p. 3, col. 1; "Proceedings ... Committee of Public Health," 2 July 1849;Primm,£/o»o/7/je Valley, 156-157. 4' The discrepancies between the federal enumeration and McPheeters's report may reflect differences in data collection techniques. Census enumerators questioned residents about peo­ ple who had died during the previous year. Since no one could give accurate information about the number of transients who had died in St. Louis soon after disembarking, they may have gone uncounted. 202 Missouri Historical Review

TABLE 2. DAY OF DEATH FOLLOWING CHOLERA DIAGNOSIS, 1850 Ward 1 Day 2 Days 3 Days 4 Days 5Days* Total

1 533 41 14 4 36 628 2 314 85 46 35 122 602 3 144 36 16 8 32 236 4 79 1 0 0 0 80 5 243 31 31 16 34 355 6 125 39 19 10 25 218 Total 1,438 (67.9%) 233(11%) 126 (5.9%) 73 (3.4%) 249 (11.8%) 2,119 (10 Source: Seventh Census of the U.S., 1850, Mortality Schedule of Missouri. Includes deaths in the twelve months preceding June 1, 1850.

* Includes day of death given as "unknown." amount that have already suffered."50 The city council, after much debate, forbade the sale of fresh fruits, green vegetables, veal, pork, sausage, and fish for the duration of the epidemic.51 The absence of a pulse in a fluid-depleted cholera patient, even while the heart continued to beat, caused the populace to become especially anxious about the risk of premature burial. A story attributed to the St. Louis Union appeared in a Cincinnati newspaper: "Mr. Schneider on the corner of Carondelet and Lafayette in St. Louis was declared dead. Just as the coffin was lowered into the grave, friends heard a knocking. This . . . shows the importance of being perfectly assured that the person is deceased before the body is taken to the grave for internment. . .. A test of this fact.. . [is] to bum some, portion of the body with a hot iron and if life is not extinct, it is said a blister will rise, but if there is no life, there will be no blister."52 During the week ending June 25, there were 589 cholera deaths, sug­ gesting that there might be no one left alive by Christmas. Mersman noted, "Business is suspended except what appertains to sickness and Death."53 Panic-stricken, an angiy mob attempted to confront city officials at the courthouse on the evening of Monday, June 25. Several hundred people demanded that the mayor and the city council take immediate action or resign. Mayor Barry, the only elected official present—all the city council

50 Mersman, diary, 17 June 1849. Mersman's choice of words reflected his knowledge of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, act 3, scene 1. 51 The ordinance was debated and defeated on June 15, then reintroduced and passed a week later. It took effect a few days after and was repealed on July 31. "Ordinance 2214," 26 June 1849, St. Louis Ordinances, March 1848-November 1849 (St. Louis, 1849).

52 Cincinnati Enquirer, 7 June 1849, p. 2, col. 4. Mrs. Creuzbauer observed such reports. When her thirty-year-old son, Otto, died seven months later of another cause, she refused to per­ mit his body to be buried "until decay commenced." Mersman, diary, 16 January 1850.

53 Barrett, "Cholera in Missouri," 347; Mersman, diary, 25 June 1849. A Summer of Terror 203

members had either fled the city or were too fearful to attend—readily con­ sented to a plan to form a Committee of Public Health to run the city. Twelve volunteers, two from each ward, formed the committee: Thomas J. Gantt and Richard S. Blennerhasset (First Ward); Adam B. Chambers and Isaac A. Hedges (Second Ward); James Clemms Jr. and Joseph M. Field (Third Ward); George Collier and Luther M. Kennett (Fourth Ward); Trusten Polk and Louis Bach (Fifth Ward); and Thomas Gray and William G. Clark (Sixth Ward). Most were prominent citizens thoroughly invested in the survival of their community; Bach owned a saloon frequented by Mersman.54 The next day, the city council formally ceded all power and authority to the Committee of Public Health and appropriated $50,000 to deal with the epidemic. Beginning on June 27, the committee met daily for the next five weeks. They announced, "Time is too valuable for any of it to be lost in the foolishness of etiquette." They did not choose between the contagion and the miasma theories; they took all emergency actions that could possibly help.55 The committee's first resolution created four temporary hospitals in schoolhouses in the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Wards and assigned physi­ cians and nurses to each (figure 3). The committee members arranged for scavenger carts to remove "filth and decaying matter" from private property and established a $5 fine for anyone who neglected to clean up. The com­ mittee selected ward inspectors and more than 140 block inspectors to check daily for sanitaiy hazards, sick destitute persons, and lawbreakers who threat­ ened the public health. They outlawed the keeping of hogs within the city and directed inspectors to bum disinfectants (coal, tar, and sulphur) and to use public funds to purchase supplies. The committee set up depots in each ward to dispense medications at city expense. It established a quarantine station on Arsenal Island, south of the city, and required all steamboats to stop there and have their passengers checked before putting ashore in St. Louis.56 Sick trav­ elers remained on the island until a doctor certified that they had recovered and posed no threat to others. Cholera deaths for June totaled at least 1,799. On July 1, the epidemic struck close to Mersman, killing his building contractor in just seven hours.

54 McLear, "St. Louis Cholera Epidemic," 176; Robert Moore, "Notes Upon the History of Cholera in St. Louis," in Homan, A Sanitary Survey, 41-46; "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 27 June 1849; Mersman, diary, 19 June 1849. Clemms became ill and was replaced by Thomas Dennis; Collier died and was replaced by H. L. Patterson on June 28. "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 28 June 1849.

53 St. Louis Daily New Era, 27 July 1849, p. 2, col. 1; "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 26 June 1849.

56 "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 27, 29-30 June, 3 July 1849; Brewer, "Voluntarism on Trial," 117-119; "Ordinance 2232," 16 July 1849. St. Louis Ordinances March 1848-November 1849. Arsenal Island, also known as Quarantine Island, later washed away in a flood and is now part of Illinois. Primm, Lion of the Valley, 155, 156. 204 Missouri Historical Review

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Andrea Myles, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis Figure 3. City of St. Louis Landmarks, 1849 The Committee of Public Health designated July 2 as a day of prayer, but Mersman observed: "This was a day set apart for Prayer and devotion, but was not observed by the Majority. The Cholera is indeed getting too fearful, is changing its primary symptoms, thus baffling the skill of the Doctors, many of whom are also taken. . . . Every body is leaving the city. I cannot howev­ er do [that], and would not do it. my God is heard in the City as well as in the Country." Because communication with the German-speaking population was a problem, the committee requested help from the German Society of St. Louis to enforce sanitary regulations."

57 Mersman, diary, 2 July 1849; "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 30 June, 2 July 1849. A Summer of Terror 205

In May and June, Mersman had passed his free time by attending the the­ ater (on at least six occasions), drinking (six episodes), walking (three times), and writing letters. During July, however, he stayed closer to home; he stud­ ied French, read novels, wrote letters, and worked in the store. On July 2, the Committee of Public Health banned the use of beer and all malt beverages for the duration of the outbreak. By the middle of the month, the committee members closed all drinking houses on Sunday and ordered omnibuses to stop running on Sunday afternoons so that residents would stay home. Mersman feared the dangers of imbibing and noted that weekend "dissipation by the Irish and the Germans" caused higher death rates on Mondays. He commented that many city folk had left but that he and Nulsen remained: "More than one hundred persons died of cholera the day before yesterday [July 10]. That's a lot for now, seeing as there are 45,000 inhabitants in the city. All those who come down with it never recover. This is a time of grief, but as for my associate and me, the only thing we can do is stay in the city. The establishment of our new business necessitates all our care and planning. So! I have no doubts that we shall thrive if the Great God will grant us life in his care." [translated from French].58 Because the theater had closed for the season, Mersman could not attend plays, but in mid-July, he saw Spencer Q. Stokes's South-Western Circus, which traveled by riverboat. That entertainment provided short-lived relief from a month of otherwise unrelenting gloom. Mersman confided to his jour­ nal: "I think I am better off writing early today. One cannot be certain of staying alive for the next day. There were 124 dead of cholera two days ago. This has become the norm. I remain in good health, as do all who we care about. We wait daily for the arrival of our liquors. We could have easily sold out our eau-de-vie by now. There isn't much of a supply in the city and it is needed everywhere." [translated from French]59 Commerce in St. Louis came to a complete standstill during July. Some merchants closed their shops, but Nulsen and Mersman stayed at then work. They moved into their new business location and then organized their mer­ chandise. Although they kept themselves occupied with chores, they made few sales and grew anxious. A customer who owed them money died of cholera in Quincy, Illinois, so Nulsen traveled there to settle with the estate. Having invested some $4,000 in setting up their store, they worried constantly: "Cash

58 "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 2, 21 July 1849; Mersman, diary, 12, 17 July 1849. As part of his self-education, Mersman engaged a French language tutor for sev­ eral years while he lived in Cincinnati. He also took dancing lessons and flute lessons in the Queen City, ever determined to improve himself. He wrote diary entries in French for practice. See Mersman, diary, 24 November 1847.

59 Mersman's sister, Agnes Lake, an equestrian and rope walker married to clown Bill Lake, appeared in St. Louis with the South-Western Circus while the epidemic raged. The couple had lost a twelve-day-old son to cholera earlier that year in New Orleans. Mersman, diary, 13,14 July 1849. Eau de vie, literally "water of life," was a brandy believed to have medicinal qualities. 206 Missouri Historical Review

is what we most badly need at this time. But it is the most rare thing, no busi­ ness or dealings with the merchants in the area. No one bothers himself with collecting on bills." [translated from French]60 When another fire broke out on July 29, a mob expressed its fear and frustration with violence. Mersman described the resulting attack on the Irish: "Last Saturday night another awful destruction of Steam Boat property took place. Five splendid N.O. Steamers fell a prey to the devouring Element. . . . Immediately after the fire the Firemen and a party of Common Irishers got in a Spree. At first the latter had the advantage, but soon the Americans turned on them, licked them, and mobbed and destroyed some 6 or 7 Irish Hell's or Grog Holes. The excitement lasted all day Sunday. ... I was home every evening, not caring to risk my precious body in the rowdy filled streets." Like many other German Americans, Mersman did not feel any par­ ticular tie to the Irish despite the common bonds of religion and immigration experience. Brawls such as this became common in St. Louis during the next five years as nativist groups acquired greater popular support.61 Although cholera deaths totaled 1,895 in July, new cases ceased abruptly during the last week of the month. On August 1, the Committee of Public Health announced that all "can now visit our City without fear of the desolating scourge

60 Mersman, diary, 16, 18, 20 July 1849. 61 Ibid., 31 July 1849; Primm, Lion of the Valley, 164-172; Jeffrey S. Adler, "Yankee Colonizers and the Making of Antebellum St. Louis," Gateway Heritage 12 (Winter 1992): 4-21.

SHSMO 026722

Cholera struck its victims quickly, felling them at work or at home. A Summer of Terror 207 which has for the last three months swept over it and clothed its inhabitants in mourning." In fact, a few scattered cases still existed—Nulsen and Mersman among them. That day, Mersman wrote:

Poor Clemens was suddenly taken sick yesterday. Immediately after din­ ner he became sick with cramps, which in a short time became so violent that he had to send for the doctor, all afternoon he was in bed up Stairs, suf­ fering a great deal. In the Evening had to be taken home in a Cab, being too feeble already to walk. The medicine he took caused him to vomit exten­ sively, hence his Weakness. . . . During the afternoon I was also taken with a most violent pain and griping in the Stomach. Although the cholera has almost disappeared (the enternments for yesterday amounting only to three) still the other deseases are gaining ascendency and destroy more human life than Father Time does without these aids. . . . This evening I was very sick. Damn Ice water, say I.

The partners survived their encounter with cholera, as did all then loved ones. Cholera cases, however, persisted in St. Louis eveiy year until 1854, and then episodic outbreaks continued to take lives until the twentieth century.62 One interpretation of the epidemic is that the water and food supplies of St. Louis became contaminated with Vibrio cholerae during the spring of 1849. If the illness did not cause death, a survivor developed some immunity. Cholera raged among the population, and the epidemic ended when the number of sus­ ceptible people dwindled. Since it took several years for the pathogenic bacte­ ria to be completely eliminated in the community, newcomers to St. Louis (especially children, who are very vulnerable to the dehydration caused by diar­ rhea) fell prey to Vibrio cholerae in the subsequent outbreaks. On August 3, 1849, President Zachary Taylor led the country in a day of prayer for those suffering from the epidemic. The disease swept through the entire nation that year, and St. Louis experienced the highest cholera death rate compared to other American cities. The cholera death rate in St. Louis was at least 68 per 1,000 (4,317 deaths with a population of 63,471) while the death rates in New York and Chicago were only 11.30 and 24.03 per 1,000 respectively. New Orleans and Cincinnati, with death rates of 30.47 and 39.04 per 1,000, also fared better than St. Louis. Boston, with a cholera death rate of 4.82, and Philadelphia, with a rate of 3.09, were the safest cities in the United States (table 3). The excessive mortality rate in St. Louis suggests that conditions there facilitated the spread of disease. Perhaps other cities had water supplies better protected from contamination.63

62 "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 1 August 1849; Mersman, diary, 1 August 1849.

63 St. Louis Missouri Republican, 3 August 1849, p. 2, col. 1; Leete and Moore, Sanitaiy Condition of St. Louis, 3-5, 7-14. 208 Missouri Historical Review

TABLE 3. MORTALITY FROM CHOLERA IN MAJOR U.S. CITIES, 1849 City Cholera Deaths Population Rate per 1,000

Philadelphia 1,022 330,744 3.09 Boston 633 131,328 4.82 New York 5,071 448,761 11.30 Chicago 678 28,214 24.03 New Orleans 3,501 114,899 30.47 Cincinnati 4,114 105,379 39.04 St. Louis 4,317 63,471 68.02 Sources: Leete and Moore, Sanitaiy Condition of St. Louis, 14-15.

The death rates among the six wards of St. Louis showed significant vari­ ation. Calculating a death rate requires both the number of deaths (the numer­ ator) and the total population (the denominator), both of which were in flux during 1849. The 1850 federal census provides information about the ethnic composition of the neighborhoods at the time of the epidemic. The First and Second Wards, located in the south end of the city, contained overwhelming­ ly immigrant populations and had the most primitive living conditions. American-born residents predominated in the Third and Fourth Wards. The Fifth and Sixth Wards had about equal numbers of German-, Irish- and native-born individuals.64 The highest death rates occurred in the south side neighborhoods, where contaminated wells supplied water and immigrant families crammed tenement buildings. Death rates reached 62.9 and 59.1 per 1,000 in the First and Second Wards, nearly seven times greater than the 8.7 death rate of the Fourth Ward. Similarly, the Third Ward death rate was only 23.1 per 1,000, less than one-third the rate of the south city wards (table 4). Many households in the Third and Fourth Wards accessed city water, probably far less contaminated than the well water available in the south end. The Third and Fourth Wards also contained the residences of many wealthy people—individuals who could flee the epidemic. Although the populations of the Third and Fourth Wards were 10,232 and 9,221 at the start of the epi­ demic, they may have fallen dramatically at the first sign of trouble. That drop in population may have contributed to the reduced death rates. Another testimony to the superiority of public water compared to private supplies comes from an unlikely source; no fatalities occurred among the inmates of the city jail, located on Sixth Street between Market and Chestnut in the Third Ward and served by public water. Although the population of the correctional facility during the epidemic averaged seventy persons, all the inmates escaped unscathed.65 64 Hodes, "Urbanization of St. Louis," 32. 65 At the time, observers attributed this phenomenon to abstinence from alcohol, "regular habits, and diet." St. Louis Missouri Republican, 16 July 1849, p. 2, col. 1. A Summer of Terror 209

TABLE 4. CHOLERA DEATHS PER 1850 CENSUS MORTALITY SCHEDULE BY WARD IN ST. LOUIS Ward Population * deaths** Rate per 1,000 1 9,972 628 62.9 2 10,193 602 59.1 3 10,232 236 23.1 4 9,221 80 8.7 5 10,933 355 32.5 6 12,920 218 16.9 Totals 63,471 2,119+ 33.9 * St. Louis Missouri Republican, 5 February 1849, p. 2, col. 4 ** Census of the U.S., 1850, Mortality Schedule of Missouri, table 1. + Cholera deaths by ward from mortality schedule total 2,198 fewer than Leete and Moore figures (table 3). The Sixth Ward, with a death rate of 16.9 per 1,000, was far less densely populated than the tenement blocks of the First and Second Wards. The reduced death rate, however, may also reflect the numbers of residents who fled to safety at the homes of friends and relatives outside St. Louis. Although no group escaped the ravages of cholera, the highest mortal­ ity occurred among the Germans and Irish because of their living condi­ tions. Wherever well water contamination was likely, cholera spread. Numerous fatalities occurred in a three-block area in the Third Ward bor­ dered by Ninth, Eleventh, Market, and Clark Streets, where ramshackle dwellings stood in the former bed of Chouteau's Pond. Called Shepherd's Meadow before the epidemic, it became known as Shepherd's Graveyard because two-thirds of its inhabitants, 68 persons, died in the outbreak.66 Even though the epidemic of 1849 cut a swath through the residents, the city's growth did not pause that year. As soon as the fall weather began, the population explosion continued. Mersman resumed his old habits of carous­ ing with friends and chasing women, though the anxiety connected with start­ ing a business remained his constant companion for the next few years. In December 1849, he wrote: "Our Business during this time has continually improved, in fact has been much better than I expected. Still our Supply of Cash is exhausted from week [to week], our Paymentz are so numerous and incessant that we are continually running short."67 Some St. Louisans who survived the crisis were intent on making the city a healthier place. Luther Kennett, a member of the Committee of Public Health representing the Fourth Ward, emerged as a popular leader. Beginning in 1850, the voters elected him to three one-year terms as mayor, and he made sewerage

66 In "History of Epidemic Cholera," McPheeters estimated that seven-tenths of the dead were immigrants (pp. 110-111). "Proceedings . . . Committee of Public Health," 3 July 1849; Brewer, "Voluntarism on Trial," 108-109.

67 Mersman, diary, 2, 10 September, 22 October, 9 December 1849. 210 Missouri Historical Review

his most lasting contribution to the city. A year after the epidemic, construction of the first sewer project began at the site of Kayser's Lake; that sewer remains in use today. The second sewer, also begun in 1850, drained Chouteau's Pond and was followed by numerous other sewer and water projects.68 Subsequent to the 1849 summer of terror, Nulsen and Mersman achieved considerable material success. In January 1851, Mersman married Claudine Creuzbauer, the sister of Albertine Creuzbauer Nulsen, and thus became Nulsen's brother-in-law as well as his business partner. The two families lived in close proximity for the next forty years. Nulsen and Mersman's rectifying business succeeded beyond their most ambitious dreams. During the Civil War, lucrative government contracts to supply whiskey to federal forces added to then fortunes, and they became prominent members of St. Louis's German American community. Mersman, a member of the Erwin Lodge of the Masonic Order, became the first president of the Fourth National Bank of St. Louis.69 Ill health forced Mersman to end the partnership with Nulsen in 1864, but from 1870 until 1880, he provided capital to Charles Orthwein, who was start­ ing a grain business. Orthwein and Mersman served clients such as Anheuser- Busch and prospered along with the brewery business. From a humble resi­ dence on Third Street, Mersman moved subsequently to Fifth Street, and then

68 Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City, 1: 134-137; Primm, Lion of the Valley, 167-169. Until the 1950s, sewers drained directly into the Mississippi River, as described by Josiah Hartzell, "The Mississippi River as a Sewer," in Public Health Papers and Reports 21 (Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1896): 22-34. See also "Message of the Mayor of the City of St. Louis and Reports of City Officers, Delivered to the City Council," May 1850 (St. Louis: Board of Delegates, 1850) and Hyde and Conard, Encyclopedia of the Histoiy of St. Louis, 4: 2041-2045.

69 Mersman-Creuzbauer marriage, January 1851, Marriage Records, 1834-1887, Holy Ghost Church, St. Louis (Family History Library, Salt Lake City, microfilm roll 1432121, sec. 2, p. 35); St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 29 March 1892, p. 2, col. 3; "Annual Return of the Officers and Members of the Erwin Lodge of St. Louis, Missouri for the year ending, May 19, 1854," Grand Lodge of Missouri, Columbia; Kargau, Mercantile, Industrial and Professional St. Louis, 160-163. Federal census records from 1860, 1870, and 1880 show that the Nulsen and Mersman famlies lived next door or across the street from each other.

Nulsen & Mersman made a fortune as wholesale liquor dealers in St. Louis.

Courtesy of author A Summer of Terror 211

to Chouteau Avenue, ever farther west as St. Louis expanded. By the time he retired completely in 1880, Mersman owned a fifteen-roommansio n in fash­ ionable Lafayette Square and numerous other parcels of land in the city.70 Joseph and Claudine Mersman reared eight children, four boys and four girls, all of whom survived to adulthood, living through additional cholera outbreaks and other infections. Greed, not illness, proved to be the undoing of the family. After Mersman died in 1892, his real estate holdings became the subject of fam­ ily conflicts. His wife had predeceased him, and his heirs squabbled over his assets for decades. Lawyers' fees ultimately consumed much of Mersman's small fortune. Eventually, several of his buildings were demolished, making way for the north leg of the Gateway Arch and the highway approach to the Eads Bridge.71 His diary, with its descriptions of life in Missouri in an earlier age, is probably the most precious item from his estate still extant. His words provide a human dimension to the devastating impact of epidemic disease in antebellum St. Louis.

70 Charles Orthwein, Mersman's nephew by marriage, wed Clemens Nulsen's oldest daughter, Caroline, in 1866. Stevens, St. Louis: The Fourth City, 2:104-107. Mersman's obit­ uary in the St. Louis Anzeiger des Westens, 28 March 1892, p. 3, col. 3, summarizes his career. A full inventory of Mersman's possessions can be found in Case 18909, City of St. Louis Probate Court Records, Civil Courts Building, St. Louis. 71 Mersman recorded his observations during a July 1853 cholera outbreak in his diary. Mersman et al. v. Mersman et al, 37 Southwestern Reporter 909-913 (1896) documents one dis­ pute that reached the Missouri Supreme Court. Litigation among the heirs continued until the estate was closed October 9, 1953, sixty-one years after Mersman's death. City of St. Louis Circuit Court Records, Nos. 26746, 26747, 34329, 64585-A, 93532, Civil Courts Building, St. Louis; "St. Louis Ordinance #42059," approved 12 April 1941, St. Louis Public Library.

The Worth of a Wife

Canton Lewis County Gazette, July 25, 1869

A certain Dutchman, owner of a small house, had effected an insurance on it of eight hun­ dred pounds, although it had been built for much less. The house got burned down, and the Dutchman claimed the full amount for which it had been insured; but the officers of the com­ pany refused to pay more than its actual value—about six hundred pounds. He expressed his dissatisfaction in powerful broken English, interlarding his remarks with some choice Teutonic oaths. "If you wish it," said the actuary of the insurance company, "we will build you a house larger and better than the one burned down, as we are positive that it can be done for even less than six hundred pounds." To this proposal the Dutchman objected, and at last was compelled to take the six hundred pounds. Some weeks after he had received the money he was called upon by the same agent, who wanted him to take out a policy of life insurance on himself or his wife. "If you insure your wife's life for 2,000 pounds," the agent said, "and she should die, you would have the sum to solace your heart." "You 'surance fellows ish all tiefs!" said the Dutchman. "If I insure my vi ve and my vive dies, and if I goes to the office to get my two thou­ sand pounds, do I gets all the money? No, not quite. You will say to me: 'She vasn't vert two thousand pounds; she vas vert 'bout six hundred. If you don't like six hundred pounds, ve vile give you a bigger and better vife!"' Private Collection Judge Napton's Private War: Slavery, Personal Tragedy, and the Politics of Identity in Civil War-Era Missouri

BY CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS*

On April 15, 1861, upon learning that President Abraham Lincoln had called for seventy-five thousand volunteers to put down what he called a "rebellion in the southern states" following the surrender of Fort Sumter, Missouri Supreme Court Justice William Barclay Napton wrote from St. Louis to his wife, Melinda, at home on their 1,700-acre farm, Elkhill, in Saline County:

The wretched set of malignant fanatics who have the control of the government have at last inaugurated war. ... It will be soon seen what Missouri will do now. There is no longer any room for neutrality. The Bl[ac]k. Republicans intend to hold on to power in the North by keeping alive the blame of negro fanaticism and carrying fire and sword into the South. The only hope is that the masses of the people will tear down the

*Christopher Phillips is an associate professor of history at the University of Cincinnati. He received the PhD degree from the University of Georgia. A version of this article will appear in the author's introduction to his and Jason L. Pendleton's forthcoming The Union on Trial: The Political Journals of Judge William Barclay Napton, 1829-1883 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2005).

212 Judge Napton's Private War 213

hideous despotism they have set up. . . . It is hard to say what [Missouri] will do - but the first impulses, on learning the news from Charleston and the President's Proclamation, will be undoubtedly a speedy secession from Bl[ac]k. Rep[ublica]n domination. Neutrality is a dangerous and dis­ graceful position and gets Kicks and curses from both sides.1

Four days later, upon learning of Virginia's secession from the Union, Napton wrote exultantly to Melinda:

Thank God. . . . Old Virginia has come out in flying colors and refused to bow the Knee to this infernal despotism we now have at Washington. She has seceded - Ky. and Missouri, I hope, will follow soon. This is the way to prevent war. The miserable vacillation of the border states has impressed these Vandals at Washington with an idea that they could walk over the Southern states, at their pleasure and execute their will. They will pause a little now—and count the cost.... I would rather give up every negro I own and lose them all and my land too, than remain a citizen of a state so craven hearted and pusillanimous as to submit to menaces of this Abolition despot­ ism now ruling the North. I hope Missouri will now stir herself and drop the white feather. War can[']t be worse than the state of suspense and cow­ ardly inactivity which now pervades her borders.2

Although his legal acumen was undeniable, Napton was no prognostica- tor. Few of his deeply felt predictions would come true. The bitter, fratrici­ dal tragedy that would ultimately cost some 625,000 American lives pro­ duced incalculable political, psychological, and economic costs. Moreover, Napton's curious stance that the act of secession would actually fores tall a war—presumably by the South's and the border states' strong collective stands forcing the shocked North to seriously consider the South's grievances short of war—would also prove wrong. The war that would ravage Missouri as much as or more than any state in the Union would ultimately cost Napton his slaves, his wife's life, and his seat on the state's high court. Though he kept his land, he was unable to live on it for the duration of the war, becom­ ing a political exile of sorts in St. Louis. Judging by Napton's strong prosecession words, one might assume that he was a fire-eating secessionist planter, a product of the Cotton States with strong blood ties to match his deep convictions on the course of the South. Nothing could be further from the truth. Napton was a native of New Jersey, the son of a merchant tailor and a graduate of Princeton University. After receiving a law degree from the University of Virginia, he moved to Missouri

1 William B. Napton to Melinda Napton, 15 April 1861, box 1, William B. Napton Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 2 A white feather symbolized cowardly behavior. Napton to Melinda Napton, 19 April 1861, box 1, ibid. 214 Missouri Historical Review in 1832, not to take up the position of slaveholding farmer, but largely because he had been told that a young man with a law degree could go far in the West. In 1832, Missouri was about as far west as a young man could go. He moved to Fayette, where he became a newspaper editor and clerk of the circuit court, then to Jefferson City, where he served successively as secretary of the state senate, attorney general, and Missouri Supreme Court justice, a position he held for a nearly unprecedented twenty-five (if nonconsecutive) years. Slavery connected the highly respected judge with the Deep South planters by the outbreak of the Civil War. Napton was the owner or trustee of forty-six slaves who toiled in and on his Saline County home and farm. His judicial rulings consistently supported the constitutionality of slavery, and he used the bench to offer government protection for the peculiar institu­ tion. To the end of his life, he extolled the moral superiority of a slave soci­ ety and avowed the unconstitutionality of the federal government's wartime intrusions into the border slave states. How Napton became an apologist for slavery and ultimately an advocate of the Lost Cause mythology is a story representative of Missouri's Civil War odyssey as a whole, a once-western state whose residents had come to believe themselves part of the South by the time of Napton's death in 1883. To understand Napton's world, one must understand Napton the jurist as an extension of Napton the man, one who dis­ avowed his northern roots in favor of the genteel southern slaveholding exis­ tence that he and others sought, with varying degrees of success, to replicate in the New West. Napton's life and his journals, which he kept with only sporadic inter­ ruptions for fifty-eight years, as well as the voluminous correspondence between Napton and his wife, Melinda, offer provocative insights into the process of southernization on the western border.3 The journals' other value lies in their author's often trenchant analysis of the political, legal, and con­ stitutional revolution spawned by the Civil War. Far from offering the mere "constitutional moralizing of sore losers," as historian Mark Neely has dis­ missed many postwar southern criticisms of the wartime policies and enact­ ments of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress,

3 The Missouri Historical Society acquired the Napton journals in 1962 and the family cor­ respondence and Napton's student notes in 1972. The combined acquisitions form the Napton Papers. Titled "Miscellaneous notes - Historical - original extracts &c. W.B.N., Student at Princeton College, Nassau Hall," Napton's original journals (hereinafter cited as Napton Journal [original]) are contained in five bound volumes. In 1905, Harry Napton transcribed his father's journals, laboriously typing them largely verbatim, with some annotation, on legal-sized sheets at his home in Anaconda, Montana. The 1,065-page transcription (hereinafter cited as Napton Journal [typescript]) has been the most widely used source in the Napton Papers, and those scholars who have used Napton's words in their own work have relied upon them almost exclu­ sively. Harry Napton also interpreted what he had found in the journals, along with his research into the family and memories of conversations with his father, in a ten-page biography titled "Sketch of the Life of William Barclay Napton" (hereinafter cited as Napton, "Sketch"). Judge Napton's Private War 215

Napton's journals assess many of the bitterly divisive actions of the federal government at the time it waged war with the Confederacy and then lost the peace in postwar former slave states.4 Living in a border slave state that had attempted to maintain neutrality in the contest, Napton was allowed a unique perspective on the revolutionary nature of the war and its aftermath. Like the border slave states themselves, the war forced Napton onto an untenable mid­ dle ground. As an elected government official of a loyal, or at least unseced- ed, state, and thus charged with scrupulous maintenance of the foundation of legal jurisprudence—impartiality—as well as being the sole provider for nine children, two residences, and some fifty slaves, Napton believed it necessary to suppress his private support for the Confederacy. Ardently proslavery, Napton was widely known for his unstinting sup­ port of slavery as a pillar of the republic by the time of the war. During the conflict, he leveled trenchant, if private, criticism of what he perceived to be the Lincoln administration's abuse of constitutional authority. Napton's observations, along with the painful personal experience of war that he recorded, reflect not only the human cost of the nation's greatest catastrophe but also the political calculus by which federal authorities exacted loyalty from a divided populace in an ostensibly loyal state. What led him to his pri­ vate anger, which burned for the remainder of his life, was an entwined series of wartime experiences and personal tragedies that combined to forever alter Napton's life and mind. Those events drove Napton's calculation of his place within the nation—a sectionalized position with the South. They also reflect the experiences of countless other such victims in Missouri's uncivil war. A commitment to the perpetuation of slavery in his personal life had afford­ ed Napton a number of public opportunities to ensure the peculiar institution's viability during the two decades prior to the war. As a judge on the state's supreme bench, Napton often upheld the rights of slaveowners to then chattel property, considering slavery an extension of private property rights. Napton uniformly upheld the rights of property holders, despite such rulings occasion­ ally creating political enmity among the non-propertied classes whom he and Melinda referred to with private scorn as "the barefoot nation." Ironically, such rulings left him with a mixed early record of upholding slaveowners' rights. For example, in 1840, Napton provided the notes that became the majority rul­ ing on a capital offense case involving a slave woman, Fanny, who had killed two white children. The majority opinion, delivered by the president of the court, Mathias McGirk, upheld the constitutionality of the death penalty for slaves convicted of such crimes despite the legal protests of Fanny's owner. The following year, Napton wrote the majority opinion that reversed a St. Louis Circuit Court decision upholding a master's right to sue for damages resulting

4 Mark E. Neely Jr., The Fate of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln and Civil Liberties (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), xi. 216 Missouri Historical Review

SHSMO 025877 from the loss of an alleged slave hired to and then discharged by two steamboat operators after the slave's term of service. Napton argued that the alleged slave was free by virtue of his birth in Illinois, a free state.5 By the 1850s, however, Napton's rulings demonstrated clearer and firmer proslavery convictions. The freedom suit of Charlotte, heard first in 1847 (and again in 1858, though Napton did not offer the latter ruling, but concurred in it), suggests the judge's hardening attitudes toward constitu­ tional protections of the institution. Charlotte's case came to the Missouri Supreme Court on appeal from the St. Louis Circuit Court. Similar to the case involving the steamboat operators, Charlotte's counsel sought her free­ dom based upon the claim that her mother, Rose (whose master was a French military officer), had been born and lived briefly in Canada and then at Fort Michilimackinack and Prairie du Chien in the Northwest Territory. In 1794, when Rose resided at Prairie du Chien, slavery was forbidden, as it was in Canada; she was brought to St. Louis the following year. The defense argued on historical grounds, claiming that the plaintiff had brought no concrete evi­ dence that slavery did not exist in British Canada and that the delayed relin­ quishment of the post by the French (who practiced slavery) to the British (who did not widely practice the institution in Canada) in the aftermath of the American Revolution negated any claim of freedom. Ruling that the

5 Melinda Napton to Napton, 14 January 1846, box 1, Napton Papers; Smith et al v. County of Clark, 54 Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Missouri 58 (1873); "Rules of the Supreme Court of Missouri," ibid, v (1837-1839); Ferguson v. Huston, 6 ibid. 407 (1840); Newman v. J. andL. A. LaBeaume, 9 ibid. 24 (1845); Fanny (A Slave) v. The State, 6 ibid. 122 (1840); Chouteau and Keizer v. Hope, 7 ibid. 428 (1841); Dudgeon v. Teass, 9 ibid. 867 (1846); The State v. Rector, 11 ibid. 22 (1847). See also 19, 24 November 1873, Napton Journal [typescript], box 4, Napton Papers. Judge Napton's Private War 217 prosecution's historical claims about slavery's non-existence in Canada were incorrect (though he acceded that the institution did not enjoy widespread practice), Napton's 1847 majority ruling in favor of the defendant reveals as much about his own beliefs about African Americans as it does about slavery in the abstract. "Neither sound policy nor enlightened philanthropy should encourage, in a slaveholding State, the multiplication of a race whose condi­ tion could be neither that of freemen nor of slaves, and whose existence and increase, in this anomalous character . . . tend only to dissatisfy and corrupt those of their own race and color remaining in a state of servitude."6 Only the most unique of circumstances prevented Napton from partici­ pating in the celebrated slave case Dred Scott v. Emerson. Yet the near miss also reveals the tacit yet implicit influence of politics on Napton's and other judges' legal rulings. Napton appears to have been deeply involved in prepa­ rations for the case, scheduled to come to the Missouri Supreme Court on appeal in 1850, and he might have prepared a preliminary draft of the ruling even before hearing the case. In his book on the Dred Scott case, historian Don E. Fehrenbacher claims that Napton and his colleague James H. Birch, also a proslavery, anti-Thomas Hart Benton Democrat, sought to offer a rul­ ing on the case that would block Benton's opposition to slavery in the terri­ tories. Napton was chosen to prepare the ruling in advance, which would have overturned a lower court's decision that offered Scott and his wife their freedom. But with additional pressure to include a legal stance on the uncon­ stitutionality of the Missouri Compromise, specifically its exclusion of slav­ ery from the largest portion of the Louisiana Territory, Napton appears to have avoided writing the ruling for months, awaiting the arrival of John Haggard's Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Admiralty, which included a ruling on a slave's freedom petition. But his rul­ ing in Charlotte v. Chouteau suggests that he was prepared to offer a broad interpretation on slavery's constitutionality in the western territories, His delay ultimately thrust the case onto a reorganized court, which did not include Napton. His journal only briefly, and largely without comment, men­ tions the Scott decision after its ultimate settlement in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857.7 Napton failed to rule on Scott v. Emerson largely because his personal and professional stake in protecting slavery carried well beyond rulings in slave cases, and its intersection with politics ultimately cost him that opportunity. By 1850 his judicial rulings derived from broader political philosophies that

6 Charlotte (of Color) v. Chouteau, 11 Mo. Reports 126 (1847); Charlotte (of Color) v. Chouteau, 25 ibid. 465 (1857); Durham v. Durham, 26 ibid. 507 (1858); Milton (of color) v. McKamey, 31 ibid. 175 (I860).

7 Scott v. Emerson, 15 ibid. 387 (1852); Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), 259- 260, 262-263, 659n30. 218 Missouri Historical Review

strongly promoted the proslavery arguments that had matured over the pre­ ceding two decades amid increasing sectional tensions. They in turn informed his deepening sectional politics. While Napton's judicial opinions on slavery failed to engender political consequences or a response from Missouri's gener­ al public, his proslavery activism led him again into the political realm, and he quickly suffered its backlash. As a slaveholder, he routinely commented in his journals on the nation's political crisis over slavery, particularly as it unfolded in the West. Napton's proslavery commitment was drawn from two strains of reasoning—one constitutional, the other social, even philosophical. As he reminded his colleague and fellow University of Virginia alumnus James O. Broadhead (whom Napton respected despite Broadhead's strong Unionist loy­ alty and activities) in 1875, "My doctrine, as you know, is the old Va. states rights doctrine - that the federal government was the creation of the states and that the paramount allegiance of a citizen was to his state -1 think it was only through this, that he owed allegiance to the government at Washington." As a rock-ribbed agrarian Utopian, Napton promoted the classical republican image of superior slave-based societies, arguing some twenty years earlier in 1854, just as the national debate over slavery in the West centered upon the Kansas lands immediately to Missouri's west:

Whatever may be thought or said of the evils of slavery, and no people are more fully apprised of or regret them more than the intelligent slave­ holders themselves, it is certain that the institution has the effect of ridding society of a great many evils which infest countries where free labor alone is found and tolerated. . . . Hence a certain degree of dependence and lofti­ ness of sentiment pervades even the poorer and humbler classes of citizens, which among the idle and higher classes, is united with intelligence, taste, and refinement. . . . We are clear of these evils here. ... To slavery we owe this distinction.8

In January 1849, in an effort to leash Benton, who was evincing free-soil inclinations, Missouri's Democratic junto enlisted Napton to author a series of instructions designed to put on record the state's unadulterated future stance on slavery in the territories. At the request of John Gano Bryan, a St. Louis County physician and states' rights, proslavery Whig politico, Napton's resolutions declared boldly and unequivocally that Congress had no right to

8 Napton to James O. Broadhead, 29 May 1875, box 1, Napton Papers; Napton Journal [typescript], 100-102; Larry E. Tise, Proslaveiy: A History of the Defense of Slavery in America, 1701-1840 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987), 349-360; William S. Jenkins, Pro- Slavery Thought in the Old South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1935; repr., Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1960), 65-81. For a more complete discussion of the classical republican theories of slaveholding and slavery see Clyde N. Wilson, Carolina Cavalier: The Life and Mind of James Johnston Pettigrew (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990), and Robert E. Shalhope, John Taylor of Caroline: Pastoral Republican (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1980). Judge Napton's Private War 219

On the eve of the Civil War, James O. Broadhead was among those Missourians opposing the secession of the state. In 1861 he served as chair of a committee advising that elected state officials main­ taining a pro-secession stance, including the governor, lieutenant governor, and secretaiy of state, be replaced with Union loyalists. [SHSMO 007162]

legislate against slavery in the territories, upheld the position of popular sov­ ereignty in the territories, and more infamously, instructed Missouri's sena­ tors to vote in favor of slavery's extension into the West on all bills. Napton's work ultimately became known as the Jackson Resolutions, named for Claiborne Fox Jackson, the proslavery state senator who introduced them into the legislature.9 Although Napton had hoped otherwise, the business was hardly secret. As early as November 1848, the St. Louis Missouri Republican announced that "an effort will be made at the coming session of the legislature to instruct Col. Benton out of his seat in the Senate." Moreover, Napton had shown the resolutions to Sterling Price (an act Price would later have to explain to Benton), among others, prior to Jackson's introduction of them to the legisla­ ture. Benton came back to Missouri on a six-month campaign against the res­ olutions, accepting all invitations to speak, especially in the slave-rich Boon's Lick where he gleefully ridiculed their author and sponsor. The furor that ensued over Napton's surreptitious involvement in the Jackson Resolutions

' Napton to Melinda Napton, 28 March [1848], 2 April 1848, box 1, Napton Papers; Napton Journal [typescript], 934, 986, 992-994, 998-999, 1000; "Sketch of the Life of Dr. John Gano Bryan," folders 5, 2, Bryan Obear Collection, Western Historical Manuscript Collection- Columbia, MO (hereinafter cited as WHMC-C); Hugh P. Williamson, "William B. Napton, Man of Two Worlds," Missouri Bar Journal 15 (March 1944): 208-211; Histoiy of Saline County, Missouri (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Co., 1881), 253; Perry McCandless, A Histoiy of Missouri: Volume 11, 1820-1860 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1972), 247-248; William E. Parrish, David Rice Atchison of Missouri, Border Politician (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1961), 86-87; St. Louis Missouri Republican, 7 November 1848, quoted in William E. Parrish, Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998), 39,40-42; Columbia Missouri Statesman, 7 September 1849, p. 1, col. 1; Jefferson City Jefferson Inquirer, 4 June 1853, p. 3, col. 1. 220 Missouri Historical Review quickly thrust him into the political spotlight. A correspondent to the Columbia Missouri Statesman questioned Napton's fitness for office, claim­ ing, "When he first emigrated to Missouri he was known as a 'Virginia abstractionist,' and advocated high toned nullification doctrines: and this goes to prove that Benton is right, in the view which he has taken of the true char­ acter and purpose of these resolutions." No record indicates that Napton pub­ licly claimed credit for the authorship of the resolutions, but he does not appear to have shied from the controversy. In August he gave a long speech at a Saline County Democratic meeting opposing Benton. Indeed, Napton's reemergence in the political arena worried his wife enough for her to warn him in October "not to get to quarreling or in any fuss with 'old Bullion' [Benton] or any body else." In the end, the controversy cost both Benton and Napton their offices. In 1851, a year after Missouri's legislature made the supreme court judgeships elective, Napton lost his seat by a large margin.10 Napton's political fears led him, now a private citizen, to sustained polit­ ical activity during the 1850s. His past intrigues surrounding Benton might have once tarred him in the minds of the electorate, but his more recent polit­ ical activities tempered their disapproval. He established the Marshall Democrat, an organ devoted to supporting the proslavery cause in Kansas, with Jackson in Saline County. Indeed, Napton and Benjamin F. Stringfellow, both former attorneys general and proslavery editors, were the only two Democratic leaders who advocated extralegal voting by Missourians in Kansas's territorial elections. Napton participated in the publicized and politicized ouster of the Bentonite president, John Hiram Lathrop, and free- soil faculty at the state university." He also privately solicited proslavery ide­ ologues "who entertain[ed] no views hostile to the social system which now prevails here" and who were "thoroughly favourable to what is generally termed the Virginia school of federal constitution" as likely candidates for the presidency. The combination of these behaviors forced Democratic leaders in the state legislature to consider Napton unfitted for its national party interests. As St. Louis federal judge Samuel Treat concluded, '"A desire to propitiate Benton' exists; and if so, it will be unlikely that Napton can succeed, or any other Missourian who is 'sound on the goose.'" Treat would soon be proven wrong, and not just about Napton.12

10 Glasgow Weekly Times, 28 June 1849, p. 3, col. 1; Columbia Missouri Statesman, 6 July, p. 1, col. 6, 13 July, p. 2, col. 5, 31 August 1849, p. 2, col. 5; Melinda Napton to Napton, 29 October 1849, box 1, Napton Papers; Napton Journal [typescript], 934. For a more thorough discussion of the political fallout over the Jackson-Napton Resolutions see Christopher Phillips, Missouri's Confederate: Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Creation of Southern Identity in the Border West (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000), 169-180.

" McCandless, ,4 Ms/o/y, 201-203. 12 Napton to Melinda Napton, 30 May [1856], undated [1856 or 1857, note on back of let­ ter reads: "JeffCity - 56 or 7 Senatorial election"], undated [13 January 1857], undated [May Judge Napton's Private War 221

Clearly, Napton's deep proslavery convictions and politics were far more personalized in the 1850s than his later, sterilized claims that he acted out of a stoic commitment to slavery's constitutional place and protections in the nation would lead historians to believe. And his beliefs appear to have been well known. Thomas E. Bottom, a Missourian who crossed into Kansas dur­ ing the troubles ostensibly "to prevent pro-slavery men, who were legally entitled to vote, from voting," claimed to a U.S. House of Representatives special committee charged with investigating the 1856 violence in Kansas that his "own object was not for the purpose of voting, as I did not believe I had a right to vote, differing from General Stringfellow and Judge Wm. P. [sic] Napton as to the legality of Missourians voting in the Territory." Bottom clearly linked Napton with one of the most rabid proslavery ideologues in Kansas. Napton's truest proslavery sentiments are most evident in a reveal­ ing 1857 personal letter he wrote to his new Saline County neighbor, Claiborne F. Jackson, owner of some sixty slaves. Apologizing to his friend for the letter's length and candor, which he claimed stemmed from his need for "writing [as] my substitute for talking" and for "unburthen[ing] myself with entire confidence," Napton placed slavery at the heart of slaveholding Missourians' political economy. Lashing out at the "Emancipationist move­ ment," Napton claimed that "however unimportant this matter may be to

1860], all in box 1, Napton Papers; Samuel Treat to Ferdinand Kennett, 26 January, 6, 12 February 1857, Napton to Hon. S. Treat, 24 January 1857, all in Kennett Family Papers, Missouri Historical Society; B. F. Massey to John F. Snyder, 13 December 1860, box 1, Dr. John F. Snyder Collection, ibid.; Parrish, David Rice Atchison, 170; Phillips, Missouri's Confederate, 219, 273; Napton to John Minor, 11 July 1859, box 9, Minor and Wilson Family Collection, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville; Lawrence O. Christensen, William E. Foley, Gary R. Kremer, and Kenneth H. Winn, eds., Dictionaiy of Missouri Biography (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1999), 335-336, 350-351, 618-619. The term "right on the goose" was a colloquial reference to the stance of Missourians who advocat­ ed strong measures to ensure Kansas's entrance into the Union as a slave state. SHSMO 024324

On March 30, 1855, the Kansas Territoiy held elections for its first legislature. Thousands of proslavery Missourians, as well as free-state advocates from the North, went to Kansas to vote, talang advantage of the territo­ ry's ambiguous residency stan­ dards. The Missourians, serious about winning the election, helped ensure victoiy for thirty- seven of the thirty-nine proslav­ ery candidates. 222 Missouri Historical Review

numbers of our friends differently situated, it is vitally important to us indi­ vidually and all others similarly situated - whose entire property consists in large bodies of land and considerable numbers of slaves." He then honed his argument, conveying the centrality of slavery to Missourians' identity, which Napton thought to be constructed around the peculiar institution, even above those other uniquely southern elements of culture and heritage offered preva­ lently as linking Missouri to its southern neighbors more than slavery.

We cannot readily and easily shift our position in life. Some English statesman (I believe Sir James Mcintosh) said an English oak would not bear transplanting at 50 - and you and I, it is probable, would hardly take root in another soil. We are Missourians - fastened here by interest, associ­ ation, family ties and long identification with the people and their habits and prejudices. We must of necessity feel a deep interest - an interest which to some people seems extravagant and which they denounce as proslavery fanaticism - in the settlement of a question whose decision may divest us of the value of one half our means of living and certainly throw us into a state of society novel and uncongenial and distasteful.13

In July 1855, Napton was among an angry group of more than two hun­ dred delegates, including some of the most important public figures in the state such as David Rice Atchison, Alexander Doniphan, Sterling Price, and Claiborne F. Jackson, who assembled at Lexington to condemn abolitionism and to pledge themselves to the conflict that was beginning to rage in Kansas. They hailed from twenty-seven counties, principally the western Missouri River ones. Napton served as a delegate from Saline County to the raucous two-day convention and acted as chair of the committee that drafted the con­ vention's official address and resolutions to the public and to Congress. In truth, Napton had likely prepared the draft prior to arriving in Lexington. In it, he condemned the extralegal actions in Kansas, which he blamed princi­ pally on the New England emigrants who sought to usurp the democratic process by their artificial emigration to the West, and he offered a number of arguments against what he and many other westerners saw as the govern­ ment's war against slavery. The address and resolutions were met with resounding acclaim by the delegates.14

13 Affidavit of Thomas E. Bottom, 24 May 1856, House Committee to Investigate the Troubles in Kansas, Report of the Special Committee Appointed to Investigate the Troubles in Kansas, with the Vim>s of the Minority of Said Committee, 34th Cong., 1 st sess., 1856, 865-867; Parrish, David Rice Atchison, 164, 198, 206-207; Jay Monaghan, Civil War on the Western Border (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 19, 38, 147; Nicole Etcheson, Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004), 85-88, 120-124; Napton to C. F. Jackson, 3 October 1857, W B. Napton Letter, WHMC-C.

14 R. Douglas Hurt, Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992), 283-286, 287-288; Glasgow Weekly Times, 26 July 1855; Liberty Weekly Tribune, 20 July, p. 1, col. 4, 27 July 1855, p. 2, col. 3; William B. Napton, et Judge Napton's Private War 223

In the minds of the Missouri electorate, the state's new militant, section- alized climate and the heightened emotions surrounding the Kansas war made Napton, the indefatigable conservative and proslavery champion, again elec­ table. When the judicial election approached in 1857, Napton's proslavery politics played well with the general public. "I have a deep interest in sus­ taining the present posture of Missouri in reference to her social and domes­ tic institutions," he wrote in January 1857, "especially in reference to her pro­ tection against outward aggression and inward treason - and I shall keep my eye upon this landmark." He was elected again to the state's supreme court, collecting 38,805 votes. Although he deplored the salary and grew "a little tired of working here on patriotic principles," he was confident he could influence the state's politics and especially its internal war for slavery. He wrote later, "A Judge of the Supreme Court has vastly more power than a Governor." Ranking party leaders regularly asked Napton to draft their addresses on slavery, Kansas, and the state of affairs in Missouri. Having rekindled his earlier association with Claiborne F. Jackson, a strong proslav­ ery, anti-Benton Democrat who took the credit and blame from Napton for the famous 1849 resolutions, to advise him on the political and legal implications of the struggle, Napton became something of a political mentor for Jackson, who also again looked electable in the state's sectional frenzy. With Jackson's reemergence into the realm of public men, Napton hoped it would pay off politically for both. Not only did they have the same stake in Missouri's future, but Napton knew that Jackson's ascent would ultimately assist, even determine, his own.15 He was correct. In August 1860, Jackson was elected to be Missouri's fourteenth governor. Three months later, Lincoln won election as the nation's sixteenth president, elected nearly exclusively by northern voters who opposed the expansion of slavery into the West. In fact, his name did not appear on the ballot in most slave states. Ironically, of the paltry twenty-

al, Address to the People of the United States, Together with the Proceedings and Resolutions ofthePro-Slaveiy Convention of Missouri, Held at Lexington, July, 1855 (St. Louis: Republican Office, 1855), 6, 7-8, 10-11, 14; James Shannon, An Address Delivered Before the Pro-Slavery Convention of the State of Missouri, Held in Lexington, July 13, 1855, on Domestic Slavery as Examined in the Light of Scripture, of Natural Rights, of Civil Government, and the Constitutional Power of Congress (St. Louis: Republican Book and Job Office, 1855), 10, 32; Parrish, David Rice Atchison, 175-176; Napton to Melinda Napton, 13 July [1855], box 1, Napton Papers.

15 Napton to Hon. S. Treat, 24 January 1857, 16 May [1858], Kennett Family Papers; Dictionary of Missouri Biography, 368-369; St. Louis Leader, 31 August 1857, p. 4, col. 4; Napton Journal [typescript], 839; Napton to Melinda Napton, 13 July [1855], undated [July 1855], 30 May [1856], 31 October, 12, 25 December 1858, all in box 1, Napton Papers; Gerald T. Dunne, Missouri Supreme Court: From Dred Scott to Nancy Cruzan (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993), 209-210; Roy D. Blunt Jr., ed., Historical Listing of the Missouri Legislature (Jefferson City: Secretary of State, 1988), 44, 90, 134. Other justices elected in August 1857 included William Scott (46,714 votes) and John C. Richardson (35,397 votes). 224 Missouri Historical Review

Claiborne F. Jackson, considered a "moderate" Democrat during his gubernatorial campaign, abruptly changed his stance after Abraham Lincoln s presidential victoiy in 1860. In his January 1861 inaugural address, Jackson defended the actions of the seceded Southern states and called for Missourians to "best consult her own interest. . . by a timely decla­ ration of her determination to stand by her sister slaveholding states. "

SHSM0 018862 seven thousand popular votes Lincoln received from those states, nearly sev­ enteen thousand came from Missouri, almost all from Germans in St. Louis and Hermann. In response to Lincoln's election, seven states in the Deep South seceded from the Union, and the nation careened toward war. In many ways, Napton's wartime fate would mirror that of his political ally. As the nation's secession crisis built, Missouri's leaders pursued a pub­ lic course favoring neutrality while working actively for the state's secession. Napton appears to have maintained a steady course through "squally times," hoping that war could be averted, but just as consistently claiming that the only way to avert war and Missouri's secession was for the national and state leadership to act quickly and decisively to protect slavery. In Napton's mind, during the late fall of 1860, no other issue could have brought about the apparent separation of the sections:

I have hope that the good sense and sober reflections of the people will yet bring out safety from all the confusion and uncertainty that now pervades the public mind. The slavery question must be settled - the public questions pro­ vided for on it has passed away and the really dangerous ones which time has developed, are only incidentally and darkly alluded to. It is time to have them settled plainly and umnistakeably - the north and south ought to come to an understanding.... What will become of Missouri I can hardly say. It depends very much of Jackson's course as Governor. He has it in his power to take measures to protect the slaveholding interest of this state - but whether he will exert it or not, remains to be seen. . . . Still I think there will be no war - the matter will be adjusted peaceably - and the South will act together.. . . But if Judge Napton's Private War 225

the Noith persists in her aggressions, the South will form a separate confed­ eracy. Missouri, there is no doubt, will go with the South.16

Napton became less sanguine in December 1860. As South Carolina con­ sidered its stance, he moved toward a stronger stand for Missouri's entrance into the Confederacy. "I regret to say," he wrote to Melinda, "that there is very little if any, hopes of any further continuance of this Union - At all events, its present dissolution seems inevitable. . . . This state will go South. There is no alternative - if she don[']t go South, she must abolish slavery - and a proposition to remain in the present Union, after all the Southern states have left, is equivalent to a proposition to abolish slavery. There is much more probability of Illinois and Iowa going south. . . . The North has now crossed the Rubicon." While he considered Lincoln a man of "sensibility" who was "very little infected with fanaticism himself," he concluded that the president-elect was "willing to use the fanaticism of others for his own advancement.... The South will never live under his rule." Yet Napton knew well that the political implications of the crisis might again cost him his seat and admitted, "For my part, I think the Judgeship by far the most desirable place at present." Despite invitations, he tried to avoid the political cabal that grew up in the city and state in consequence of the secession crisis, even those that preceded Jackson's inauguration. "Where I get into political discussions, I forget and can[']t so well perform my present duties. Therefore I mean to avoid politics. My mind is made up as to what I am for and what I will do - and it is useless to argue the matter." Yet his views had hardened, and he soon claimed that he would not satisfy the "quietists" of the state, that "they will find me disposed to no halfway wishy washy plans. ... I would not back out and stand aloof." Four days before South Carolina's fateful decision, Napton had taken a strong stand in favor of a southern course for Missouri as a pro­ tection for slavery and advocated the same for the governor-elect.

Efforts will be made here to hold us on - by talking about - Western Confederacy and an Independent state. All this is only a pretext - the object is to abolish slavery here. Whether it will succeed or not, time will show. If Jackson will take a decided course, there is no fear, but he will find the mass of the people with him.... The Republic of our forefathers is gone - its spir­ it has departed long since - and it has been for years, but a mere lifeless hulk. We had as well throw away the form and go about the construction of a new one, which may or may not embrace all the disjecta membra of the old one. If it does not, it will only be because of the "irrepressible conflict" between slavery and antislavery fanaticism.17

16 Napton to Melinda Napton, 19 October, 11, 18, 22, 25 November 1860, all in box 1, Napton Papers. 17 Napton to Melinda Napton, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16 December 1860, 7 January, 3 February 1861, all in ibid. In Latin, disjecta membra means "scattered remnants." 226 Missouri Historical Review

The rapid secession of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas propelled Napton to a more decisive seces­ sionist stance. Yet when the state legislature determined to hold a convention in March to decide Missouri's fate, Napton demurred from being a delegate, fearing that his inevitable vote for secession would cost him his place on the bench, a fate that would be financially disastrous. "My precarious entrap- ments COMPEL me to hold on to the Judgeship," he confided anxiously to Melinda, referring to the expensive addition he had recently begun construct­ ing on the main dwelling at Elkhill, but he fretted the convention's outcome. "I fear Missouri will not take a firm stand," he wrote, "but that a majority of the convention will be disposed to submit [to the] abolitionization of Missouri. . . . The Mo. Republican is straining eveiy nerve to bring Missouri into a state of quiet submission to Black Republican domination - and they may succeed in electing the majority of their men in the Convention - but if, as I believe, Va. Ky and Tenn take bold ground before the Convention meets, the people will bring such a clamor round their ears - that they will be driven into some decided position."18 By March, after several hundred federal troops had arrived to occupy the U.S. arsenal in St. Louis, symbolizing the imposition of federal authority in the slave states, Napton began to display the secessionist leanings he had obscured to all but his closest confidants. "I went last night to Judge [John M.] Krum's - and met with several acquaintances in the Convention," he

Napton to Melinda Napton, 8 February 1861, ibid.

Elkhill, pre-1900 Library of Congress Judge Napton's Private War 227 wrote buoyantly to Melinda. Rrum was well known for his anti-black legal opinions. "We drank champagne pretty freely and I did not get away till late." Playfully, he chided his second.oldest son, Tom, an undergraduate at the state university, for misspelling "secession." Yet he still believed wishfully, after Missouri's state convention voted overwhelmingly against secession, that "there is not the most remote probability of any violence or bloodshed. The difficulties which have existed will find a peaceful solution. There will be a compromise or a peaceful separation of the two divisions of the country. My own opinion is, that in the course of three or four years, some amicable arrangement will be brought about." The April 12 firing on Fort Sumter, Lincoln's ensuing call for volunteers, and more importantly, Virginia's April 17 decision to secede ended Napton's feigned objectivity and goaded him to strong action. Within days he sent two inflammatory letters to Melinda, avowing his opposition to neutrality and denouncing the Lincoln administra­ tion as thoroughly abolitionist.19 The record then goes silent. No letters written between April 19, 1861, and 1866 by either Napton or his wife are extant. No subsequent journal entiy appears until late December 1862, though not because Napton stopped recording them. He continued to keep his journal, writing harshly enough of the course of the war for him to fear that the volumes would incriminate him as a secessionist and subject him to arrest if they fell into federal hands. As a result, he buried two journals (and likely much of his correspondence) on his farm in tin containers in September 1862. Unfortunately, water destroyed the journal volume he had kept from 1857 to late 1862, a fate he lamented in a September 18, 1865, journal entry after he had unearthed the journals and discovered the one volume's complete deterioration. Thus, we know nothing of Napton's thoughts and little of his activities during the most tumultuous twenty months in Missouri's history. Yet what happened to Napton in the interim is not a complete mystery, for evidence indicates that his secessionist leanings became public record. In December 1861, Napton lost his seat on the state's high bench in consequence of a measure adopted the previous October by the provisional state convention (the de facto state government) requiring public officials to take a test oath swearing loyalty to the national government. Along with Justices William Scott of Howard County and Ephraim B. Ewing of St. Louis, he refused to take the oath, arguing that the requirement was not only unconstitutional (the

" Napton to Melinda Napton, 18, 19, 24 March 1861, ibid. John M. Krum was a former circuit court judge and Democratic mayor of St. Louis. A native New Yorker, Krum was well known for his 1846 opinion that free blacks had no constitutional rights because they were not citizens. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he withdrew from the Democratic Party in favor of the Republicans; he served as colonel of the Ninth Missouri Volunteers during the war. James Neal Primm, Lion of the Valley: St. Louis, Missouri (Boulder, CO: Pruett Publishing Co., 1981), 188; William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the Histoiy of St. Louis (New York: Southern Histoiy Co., 1899), 2: 1195-1196. 228 Missouri Historical Review

convention being, in Napton's opinion, extralegal) but, having already taken an oath when assuming his position on the court, actually suggested his disloyalty.20 We also know that Napton held out a qualified hope for peace as late as December 30, 1862. His journal includes a novel proposal for the cessation of hostilities that involved a national referendum on the war's outcome. The proposal reflected his deep belief that "nine tenths of the people," north and south, were willing to compromise on the national issues that, in his mind, had brought about the war. Napton's plan is not so remarkable for its politi­ cal adroitness as for its reflection of his perspective on the state of the nation, one that centered upon slavery and on the essentiality of the border states toward national reconciliation. Napton was convinced that, in effect, three parties existed in the country, two of which (including southern Democrats) were largely moderate and differed only on the question of one or two sover­ eign governments in the nation. The third, the Radical Republicans, he cas­ tigated for advocating the "total extermination and subjugation of the South and the consequent destruction of slavery everywhere within its limits." A national plebiscite would, he reasoned, put aside the minority impetus toward slavery's destruction and would devolve upon a question of sectional bound­ ary, presumably for the maintenance and exclusion of the peculiar institution.

Let the southern representatives or commissioners say what their ultima­ tum, on a separation, would be - what line they would insist on now, for the sake of peace. This could easily be determined. Of course the South would never yield any ground south of the northern line of Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas that is, the border states would be the ground of contention. In fact, the other side would not expect them to claim less than the eleven states included within this line, which would give up Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri. But if the South would not consent to peace, on these terms, where would they insist on the line? This would be for them to say, - and this would be the basis of what I was about to suggest.21

Within twenty-four hours, Napton's feelings of moderation would change forever. Rarely can a historian precisely date when a person's ideological stance either is determined or drastically changed. In this case, we can. Records indicate that Napton's proslavery reputation subjected him to "out­ rages" in the form of harassment and intimidation from federal troops in Saline County. In fact, several such incidents over a two-month period during the

20 William E. Parrish, Turbulent Partnership: Missouri and the Union 1861-1865 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1963), 33-47, 77-79, 86; Napton Journal [typescript], 309; Dunne, Missouri Supreme Court, 59-61. Parrish has called the Missouri convention's deci­ sion to oust its elected government and to seat a provisional one "a unique experiment, the only government in the entire history of the United States to be established by a convention legally in existence for an entirely different reason." Parrish, Turbulent Partnership, 47.

21 Napton Journal [typescript], 231-232. Judge Napton's Private War 229

late autumn and winter of 1862-1863 have been merged in family lore with the greatest tragedy in Napton's life—the sudden death of his wife. In late 1862, so the story goes, Melinda was working in her prized gar­ den when federal soldiers approached her from behind. The commanding officer drew his sword and threatened her so violently that she fainted and never regained consciousness, dying soon thereafter. Another family story tells of Napton then being dragged from the house with a noose around his neck, only to be saved from death by a former client recognizing him as a man of integrity. The Yankee squad then turned him loose, and an unfazed Napton returned to the house to finish his lunch. In truth, these stories fuse only slightly related actual and apocryphal events. According to the army provost marshal's records, in mid-November 1862, a squad of mounted soldiers (like­ ly Enrolled Missouri Militia) under a German subordinate officer, upon infor­ mation gained from a neighbor that Napton was hiding "guns and powder," rode to Elkhill and demanded that Melinda, some seven months pregnant, "bring those guns out in ten minutes, [or] he would burn the house." The squad leader then ordered all individuals out of the house and, as servants and children quailed, began searching it. A Lieutenant Hunter, in command of the expedition, soon rode up and reprimanded his squad leader "that such talk to a Lady in her fix was out of the question" and ordered "that he should wait 'til Napton come." After a seeming eternity, Napton appeared and remon­ strated against the actions, "remark[ing] . . . frequently that they was doing wrong" and denying having any weapons. Although assured repeatedly that the squad would commit no depredations upon his farm, Napton protested vigorously when the overall commander of squads in the vicinity arrived and allowed his men to take the family's bedclothes "as they [his soldiers] would need them to keep warm." After finding no weapons, the soldiers left, but not

Private Collection J0^m

a -i -" Melinda Williams, the daughter of a Tennessee Supreme Court justice, mar­ ried William B. Napton in 1838. They had met when she visited an aunt in Saline County. •^v" "• f' 4 230 Missouri Historical Review

before destroying some of the Naptons' property and confiscating a mule to replace a lame one ridden by a squad member.22 Melinda's pregnancy provides the connection between the tragedies. Just six weeks later, a day after Napton penned his proposal for national reunion, she went into labor. At forty-two and bearing her eleventh child in twenty- three years, Melinda experienced problems, and Napton quickly summoned a physician. The following morning, she hemorrhaged badly, likely suffering a placenta previa (premature separation of the afterbirth). Despite the physi­ cian's best efforts to stem the bleeding, Melinda died within an hour of giv­ ing birth to a stillborn infant, their tenth son. Conscious nearly to the end, she alternately prayed and pleaded for help, knowing a half hour before her death that it was imminent and claiming that she was unafraid to die. Her last words to her husband and Malvena Napton, an unmarried sister-in-law who had lived at Elkhill since 1846, were, "Be good to Maiy, both of you," a ref­ erence to her only daughter. Benumbed by grief, Napton buried his wife and infant child two days later near the orchard. He was barely able to compre­ hend the magnitude of the tragedy; six children between the ages of two and fourteen resided at home, and he was unemployed.23 Napton's wartime nightmare had not ended. In fact, what happened soon thereafter likely helped to create the bitter family memoiy of Melinda's death, just as it completed Napton's transformation to Southerner. Within days of

22 W. A. Wilson to Benjamin Loan, 28 November 1862, Union Provost Marshal's File of Papers Relating to Individual Civilians (Missouri State Archives microfilm roll F1375, National Archives Microfilm Publication M345, roll 201), Record Group 109, originals held at National Archives; Napton Journal [typescript], 277.

23 "Domestic Chronology," 31 December 1862, 2, 4, 6 January, 7 February, 1 September 1863, vol. 3, Napton Journal [original], box 4, Napton Papers; 31 December 1862, vol. 2, ibid.; Napton Journal [typescript], 995.

Mary, Napton's only daughter, married E. D. Montague and continued to live in Saline County. [Private Collection] Judge Napton's Private War 231

Melinda's burial, federal troops drove Napton from his home with the "set­ tled determination," he opined, "to leave me without means and drive me from the State." Forced to leave behind his youngest children in Malvena's care (with others lodged at boarding schools), Napton fled to the home of Dr. George Penn in St. Louis County, "an exile and a wanderer" not to return to Elkhill for nearly a year. The reasons for his harsh treatment can only be guessed, but the circum­ stances unnerved Napton enough that he began keeping two journals, one in his St. Louis office (with decidedly sanitized entries) and one in a secret loca­ tion at his private dwelling (with more personal and critical political reflec­ tions). He also recorded a hasty last will and testament. Certainly the fact that Napton's brother Welling and his own son Tom, both living at Elkhill, had, after being arrested in June 1862, taken the oath, posted a $1,000 bond, and pledged not to give aid or comfort to the Confederacy in any way and to offer information on any person doing so in Saline, Lafayette, and Pettis Counties, figures into the story. But the federal officials' raised ire may have resulted from the enlistment of Napton's two eldest sons, Billy, and especial­ ly Tom, into Confederate service. Billy had served only briefly in the fall of 1861; a severe fever had forced him to return home. He was then captured by federal troops and threatened with prison before taking the oath of alle­ giance, which ironically made him eligible for the local enrolled federal mili­ tia. Tom joined the rebel ranks after posting bond and taking the oath in June. He served with the Second Missouri Cavalry, reaching his regiment at Memphis, Tennessee, after the rest of the county's recruits had enlisted at Van Buren, Arkansas. He served for the duration of the war, riding with Nathan Bedford Forrest in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, and received two slight wounds. Tom's treason may have come to the attention of Union authorities, and they consequently targeted the now-notorious family patriarch whom they could not prove was disloyal, but who could be given a stern message against complicity in his sons' disloyalty. Despite being assured of his safety by some of the highest ranking officials of the provisional government, includ­ ing Governor Hamilton R. Gamble, Napton remained in St. Louis through the end of the year. On December 27, 1863, he returned with his daughter for a visit to the farm to find his other children safe and that they had apparently accepted Malvena as their mother. He was dismayed to find "my stock is reduced to a few cows, some old horses and a flock of sheep and hogs - my gates and fences are down or out of repair - my negroes are seeking their for­ tunes in Nebraska and in the army, only two women and one man, with some children remaining." "I lead a wretched life," he wrote in his journal, "with a heavy heart and with feeble hopes of better times. I realize now for the first time the truth of the familiar adage that misfortunes seldom come singly." His misfortunes were so complete that, owing to financial hardship, he was 232 Missouri Historical Review

Tom Napton eventually went into the prac­ tice of law and, in 1866, moved to the Montana Territory where he resided for the rest of his life. [Private Collection]

unable to erect more than a temporary headstone marking his beloved wife's grave until 1875.24 Residing in various St. Louis boardinghouses, Napton soon found his financial condition disastrous. He needed an income to support his family, and the practice of law offered the most viable opportunity. Luckily for Napton, St. Louis's civil courts were virtually the only such courts operating during the war, the military courts and commissions having largely superced­ ed other courts. In May 1863, he advertised his services as a lawyer, intend­ ing to conduct business from his room at 41 1/2 Chestnut Street, and the advertisement was picked up by newspapers as far away as Columbia. Federal authorities quickly arrested and interrogated him about his sympathies

24 "Domestic Chronology," 10 January, 6, 27 February, 19, 27 May, 27 December 1863, 8 June 1866, 9 August 1879, vol. 3, Napton Journal [original]; Columbia Missouri Statesman, 16 January 1863, p. 2, col. 7; William B. Napton [Jr.], Past and Present of Saline County, Missouri (Indianapolis: B. F. Bowers and Co., 1910), 899-900; J. W. Napton, oath of allegiance and bond, 3 June 1862, Union Provost Marshal's File of Papers Relating to Individual Civilians; W. B. Napton and Thomas Napton, Veterans' Files, folder 206, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Missouri Division, Collection, WHMC-C; Columbia Missouri Statesman, 9 June 1882; Histoiy of Saline County, 326-327; Saline County Missouri Militia Enrollments, 1865-1866 (Missouri State Archives microfilm roll ML-423), 312; Record of Missouri Confederate Veterans, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Missouri Division, Saline County (Missouri State Archives microfilm roll M-145); Register of Gravesites, lots 51-52, Lawn Ridge Cemetery, Marshall, Missouri; Daughters of the American Revolution, Marshall [MO] Chapter, Cemeteiy Records of Saline County, Missouri (Marshall, MO: E. Ellsberry, 1965), v. 1, pt. 2: 219; Napton, "Sketch," box 1, Napton Papers; "Miscellaneous notes - Historical - original extracts &c. W. B. N., Student at Princeton College, Nassau Hall," 1, Napton Journal [typescript]. Judge Napton's Private War 233 and violation of the convention ordinance that required lawyers, teachers, and clergymen to take the "convention oath." Desperate for money, he took the oath at the courthouse and opened his law practice. Napton's reputation as a disunionist soon brought him again to the attention of the city's federal provost marshal, Franklin A. Dick, who insisted upon a second interrogation. The questioning centered on Napton's political convictions, support for the war effort, and the Lincoln administration. Politely yet resolutely, Napton declined to answer most of the questions on the grounds of the First Amendment, but he clearly stated that he opposed emancipation. He lied, or at least stretched the interpretation of such questions, when denying that he had relatives in the Confederate army "that I know of and in his disavowal of "hav[ing] ever received any communication whatever from any person in the rebel army," or having passed communications to and from exiled Missouri secessionists in Canada and England. When asked if he were loyal or disloyal, he answered resignedly, "I consider myself loyal to the Constitution, but there are so many interpretations now to the word Loyal, that I must leave it for others to judge whether I am loyal or not as meant." Despite his evasiveness, the federal officers allowed Napton to open his prac­ tice. Though it proved financially successful, he soon found that his political reputation cost him cases in the heated wartime environment. Indeed, he bri­ dled at being "swindled" out of all but $300 of a $1,500 fee, more than 20 percent of his entire income for his first year's labors, when the city's Board of School Commissioners terminated him after "objections were made to my employment, on the ground of my political opinions, which were assumed to be hostile to those entertained by the Board." Despite such impositions, or perhaps in part because of them, Napton's law practice remained steady and even grew after the end of the war, earning him an income of as much as $9,000 as early as 1868. Five years later, his practice would provide him some $12,000 annually.25 Napton was not content practicing law, though it allowed him to provide comfortably for his children who had not scattered during the war. Family

25 "Tribute of the St. Louis Bar to the Memory of William B. Napton," St. Louis City Circuit Court General Term Records (February 1872-October 1883), 2: 573-576 (Missouri State Archives microfilm LRP 814.229); Napton to F. A. Dick, 25 May 1863, and Statement of Mr. W. B. Napton, 6 June 1863, both in Union Provost Marshal's File of Papers Relating to Individual Civilians; "Domestic Chronology," 30 March, 30 April 1864, 22 February, 31 December 1868, vol. 3, Napton Journal [original]; Columbia Missouri Statesman, 22 May 1863, p. 3, col. 1; Napton, "Sketch"; Napton to John F. Snyder, 18 October 1864, Snyder Collection. Napton took the federal oath again in 1865, with a qualifying statement that reiterated his opinions on the matter of loyalty. "I take this oath, with the accompanying declaration, that I am not to be understood as denying or disavowing any opinions or sympathies expressed or entertained, in reference to the past action of the federal or state governments, which opinions and sympathies I do not regard as having anything to do with one's allegiance or loyalty, and I protest against the validity of all that part of the oath which related to past acts as conflicting with the Constitution of the United States and the fundamental principles of all our state gov­ ernments." Napton Journal [typescript], 314, 318. 234 Missouri Historical Review tradition, again cultivated by war experiences, tells that the boys went west to avoid taking the oath of allegiance. That Billy and Tom, like their father, took the oath suggests otherwise, and the other sons were not yet old enough to be required to do so. In truth, Napton's oldest son, Billy lived at Elkhill with his wife, Napton's former ward, Kentucky-born "Pinna" Shelby, and their two children. Although Billy later claimed in his autobiography that his 1862 marriage to his cousin occurred "without the consent of anybody—but she and I," suggesting his parents' disapproval, family tradition claims that Pinna's inheritance (estimated in 1860 at some $53,000 in real and personal property, including slaves) obscured any such displeasure, if it even existed. Upon his return from the Confederate army, Tom, along with younger broth­ ers John and James, headed west to practice law, mine, or to seek other oppor­ tunities. Napton's other children were in schools in rural Missouri, St. Louis, and Virginia; several would ultimately join their brothers in the Far West and remain for the duration of their lives. Four years after Melinda's death, Napton, recognizing his loneliness, mentioned being attracted to women in his journal. "I mingle occasionally in the society of ladies, though not habitually," he confessed, "and have met with some who have attractions that would no doubt add to my happiness, if prudence would justify my venturing once more into a married life." But Napton refrained from either marital commitments or emotional attachments, in part from his devotion to his late wife but also likely because his own rigid commitment to the cult of domesticity (under which women were to remain

Private Collection

After an unsuccessful mining venture in Montana Territory, William Napton Jr. returned to Missouri in 1866, opened a law practice in Kansas City in 1868, and even­ tually returned to Saline County, where he devoted the rest of his life to agriculture. Judge Napton's Private War 235

at home) and his inflexible standards of femininity that derived from it. "I cannot say however, that I have seen any woman whom I considered equal to my wife in all those qualities which attract me, and conform to my notions of excellence in the sex." He never remarried.26 Just as writer Wilbur J. Cash and others have concluded that the "mind of the South" resulted in large part from the events of the Civil War and that the South itself was a "frontier the Yankee made," Napton's proslavery views and secessionist leanings galvanized during the war into a decisive Southern iden­ tity. One of his sons later recalled, "I heard him say once toward the latter part of his life that there was not a drop of 'Yankee' blood in his veins - if there was 'I would take a knife and let it out' to use his own words. No native Virginian ever disliked a Yankee more than he." Although his secessionist sentiments and support for the Confederacy paralleled those of Virginia, the state of which he considered himself progeny, Napton's southernization transcended that of his adopted home state. It derived from a combination of factors, including the loss of his judicial seat and its attendant hardships, federal military intrusions into the border and Confederate states (which fig­ ured into his wife's untimely death, his ensuing exile, and the scattering of his family), the ascension of pro-Lincoln administration Radicals in Missouri, and above all else, the erosion and ultimate eradication of slavery. If, as his­ torian C. Vann Woodward has argued, Southern identity was created from a postwar culture of "frustration, failure, and defeat" more than from any prewar culture of abundance and masteiy, Napton's wartime experience and his journals for the period show that one figured as prominently as the other into the construction of such identity.27 By the time of his death, Napton claimed a heritage that blended the var­ ious strains of political and social thought that had directed his life. As he criticized the federal government for its unlawful intrusions into neutral Missouri, maintaining a belief in racial superiority indistinguishable from those of Deep South apologists, and suffered at the hands of the sinners of the newly made world, Napton lay final claim to his southern heritage, one that came not by birth but by experience and, most importantly, by ideology.

26 Napton, Past and Present of Saline County, 899-900; "Domestic Chronology," 11 January 1863, 3 May 1865, 8 June 1866, 9 May, 26 October 1867,20 May 1872, vol. 3, Napton Journal [original]; Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Population Schedule, "Saline County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, roll 645); Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, Population Schedule, "Saline County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication T9, rolls 716, 717); Napton to Melinda Napton, undated [ca. 1856, note on back of letter: "Jeff City - 56 or 7 Senatorial election"]; W B. Napton Jr. to Walter Williams, 5 August 1910, pri­ vate collection; Napton Journal [typescript], 899.

27 W.J. Cash, The Mind of the South (1941; repr., New York: Vintage Books, 1991), 105; William B. Napton Jr. to Harry P. Napton, 18 March 1902, microfilm roll 37, Napton Papers; C. Vann Woodward, The Burden of Southern Histoiy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1960; repr., New York: Mentor Books, 1969), 27. 236 Missouri Historical Review

Napton believed that the Civil War had destroyed all that he considered civi­ lized, but more significantly, nearly all that he had worked to achieve for his western world. His place as a respected jurist and large landholder had been inextricably entwined with his status as a slaveholder. When the North and the federal government inaugurated a war against the South, his status as slaveholder had overshadowed his support for the Union. His late-life immersion in the days of his past, ironically, brought atonement. Napton real­ ized that his trials had actually offered a rebirth; his defeats had given him all that he had wanted in his adult life. He had become a southerner by right, if not by birth. Having opposed and sacrificed for the war, Napton could cast his lot with the South by association, a transition that former slave states like Missouri had also managed to make despite not having seceded. Near the end of the Napton family photo album, positioned carefully among relatives, rests a carte de visite of John Wilkes Booth, the notorious assassin of Abraham Lincoln. Napton likely placed it there with calculated care, alongside a tin-type image of Billy standing proudly in his Confederate frock coat, near the end of his life. In 1871, Napton received what he considered his greatest recognition— an invitation to his law alma mater, the University of Virginia, to address the school's alumni. He lauded the historical tradition of a bygone Virginia and the important political and social place that the state would yet hold in the uncertain future of the nation. Yet he doubted his effort, considering it a "poor affair," for he knew that while he considered himself one of those to whom he spoke, his listeners might not share his own sense of entitlement.

Private Collection

This image of John Wilkes Booth, noted actor and Lincoln assassin, was likely placed in the Napton family photo album by William B. Napton. Judge Napton's Private War 237

"Mr. President, I am not a Virginian," he admitted somberly. "What I have said," he declared, "has been prompted ... by the hearty admiration for the people and country, the social, educational and political institutions then char­ acteristic of Virginia." Napton's candid admission was no mere genuflection to his Virginia listeners; he recognized that he shared far more politically with his audience than a brief past residence in their state. In admitting that he was no Virginian, William B. Napton had decided that he had become something far more lasting: he was a southerner.28

28 Napton Journal [typescript], 679; Napton, Past and Present of Saline County, 899-900; Tenth Census of the U.S., 1880, Population Schedule, "Saline County"; William B. Napton, will, 27 September 1882, box 1, Napton Papers; Napton Family Photo Album, private collection; William B. Napton, An Address Delivered before the Society of the Alumni of the University of Virginia, June 29, 1871 (Charlottesville, VA: Chronicle, 1871), 25; Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980). Several months after Napton's death in 1883, the State of Missouri purchased a portrait of him painted by Frank M. Pebbles, which hangs on the second floor of the Supreme Court building in Jefferson City. Jefferson City Tribune, n.d. [1883]. The state honored Napton in 1917 by including a stained glass window with his name on it in the rotunda of the new capi­ tal, one of twelve Missouri figures so honored.

RICHARD S. BROWNLEE FUND GRANTS

The closing date for applications for State Historical Society of Missouri Richard S. Brownlee Fund grants is June 30. Cash awards from the fund are made annually to indi­ viduals and organizations proposing to write publications about, or otherwise document, the history of Missouri and its citizens. Individuals, local historical societies, museums, and governmental and nongovernmental agencies are eligible to apply for funding. Residency within the state is not a requirement. Application forms for Brownlee Fund awards are available on the Society's Web site, www.umsystem.edu/shs/BrownleeFund, or can be obtained by writing the Society at 1020 Lowry, Columbia, MO 65201-7298. Ten copies of the application and supporting docu­ mentation should be sent to Richard S. Brownlee Fund at the above address by June 30. The awards will be presented at the Society's annual meeting on November 5. I. f. 'if I f • "I

*r--c ssssam^MSSS)^ SHSMO 026693 Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri: Little Dixie's Slave-Majority Areas and the Transition to Midwestern Farming

BY ROBERT W FRIZZELL*

Two recent, important monographs have addressed the issue of Missouri's supposed Southern identity in the nineteenth century. At issue is whether Missouri, on the border between the North and the South and con­ taining a considerable number of slaves, but also located on the far western frontier for much of the antebellum period, became a Southern rather than a Western state. Missouri's sectional identity after the Civil War is also at issue. Christopher Phillips, in a biography of Claiborne Fox Jackson, Missouri's secessionist governor, asserts that Missouri, certainly a frontier state when it was admitted to the union in 1821, began to identify itself as Southern in the mid-1850s. With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the subsequent creation of a free territory in Kansas along Missouri's western border, federal policy seemed to challenge the rights of slaveholding Missourians by refusing to let them take their slaves into Kansas. Moreover, slaveholders believed that a free Kansas threatened slavery in Missouri.

*Robert W. Frizzell is director of libraries at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville. He recieved a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Missouri- Columbia and masters' degrees in European History and Library Science from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

238 Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 239

Many of Missouri's slaves were held in western counties near Kansas aboli­ tionists, who were thought likely to encourage runaways and even stage raids into Missouri to free slaves. According to Phillips, Missouri's slaveholding agricultural elite, who also formed much of the state's political elite, were forced, as a measure to protect their wealth, to see themselves as politically Southern rather than Western.1 T. J. Stiles, in his biography of Jesse James, sees popular support for that outlaw in postwar Missouri as an expression of a Southern, indeed Confederate, political faction—one of several within the state. This faction gained political control of the state in 1872 and remained in power for decades thereafter.2 Another approach to studying the issue of Missouri's Southern identity is to examine the population and the economy of "Little Dixie," long accepted as Missouri's most Southern region in the nineteenth century.3 Both in its ear­ lier guise as the "Boone's Lick Country" and, beginning in the 1880s, as "Little Dixie," the distinctive central Missouri region has received much attention, yet writers have disagreed as to the specific boundaries of the area. In defining "Little Dixie," historians have relied on either the intensity of slave-based agriculture before the Civil War or on the high level of loyalty to the Democratic Party in the centuiy following the war.4 All agree that many of the region's counties lie along the Missouri River from the Kansas border to its juncture with the Mississippi River. The present study uses historian R. Douglas Hurt's definition, which emphasizes antebellum slave-based agricul­ ture as the most important element in defining the region (see map 1). Little Dixie slaveholders employed their bondsmen in general farming, yet it was the extensive use of slaves in the commercial production of hemp and tobac­ co that defined Little Dixie as a distinctive region. An examination of the counties with the highest percent of slave popula­ tion reveals agricultural areas of Missouri that were surprisingly similar to the plantation South in the years immediately before the Civil War. Although

1 Christopher Phillips, Missouri s Confederate: Claiborne Fox Jackson and the Creation of Southern Identity in the Border West (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2000), 191- 195, 288-296.

2 T. J. Stiles, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War (New York: A. A. Knopf, 2002), 20- 21, 53-54, 289, 387. 3 In the twentieth century, another Missouri region seemed to have most in common with the South. After swampy lands in southeast Missouri were drained for intensive cultivation about a century ago, that region became home to many sharecroppers who grew cotton. Later, farmers in the region began to grow rice, another crop associated with the South.

4 R. Douglas Hurt, Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992); Robert M. Crisler, "Missouri's 'Little Dixie,"' Missouri Historical Review 42 (January 1948): 130-139; Howard Wight Marshall, Folk Architecture in Little Dixie: A Regional Culture in Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1981). 240 Missouri Historical Review

J

Reprinted from Agriculture and Slavery in Missouri's Little Dixie by R. Douglas Hurt, by permission of the University of Missouri Press. Copyright © 1992 by the Curators of the University of Missouri. Map 1. Little Dixie Counties of Missouri unnoticed by previous historians, a careful analysis of manuscript census schedules reveals that slaves made up a majority of the population in some areas of west central Missouri in 1860. Nor has it been previously specified how these areas, so intensely Southern in an economic sense before the war, quickly adopted midwestern farming practices at the war's end. While rec­ ognizing Little Dixie as distinct and worthy of detailed study, historians have failed to note both its slave-majority townships and the transformation of its agricultural practices in the years after 1865. Both Harrison Trexler, in a monograph published in 1914, and Hurt, in a volume published nearly eighty years later, have detailed the importance of slavery in the area. Hurt wrote that the seven counties he included in Little Dixie "served as the heart of the 'Black Belt' in antebellum Missouri."5 Each

5 Hurt, Agriculture and Slaveiy, xi; Harrison Anthony Trexler, Slaveiy in Missouri, 1804- 1865, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, ser. 32, no. 2 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1914). Although Trexler's study concerns the whole state, much of his evidence comes from the Little Dixie region. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 241

of these seven counties—Boone, Callaway, Clay, Cooper, Howard, Lafayette, and Saline—had a slave population of at least 24 percent in 1850, and three of them contained a slave population of more than 30 percent in 1860. On the eve of the Civil War, these counties were among the top eight counties in the state with the highest percentage of slaves in the total population (see table 1). If the absolute number of slaves per county is considered, the seven counties are also among the most important in Missouri. Only three counties outside Little Dixie—Jackson on the Kansas border, Pike on the Mississippi above St. Louis, and St. Louis County—had more slaves than Clay County, the Little Dixie county with the fewest bondsmen. Thirty percent of Missouri's slaves lived in the seven counties of Little Dixie. Hurt and earlier writers have failed to note that within each of the coun­ ties, especially those with the highest number of slaves, the distribution of slaves varied greatly from one township to another. Slaves composed a larg­ er portion of Howard County's population than of any other county in the state—36.9 percent. But in Howard County's Boonslick Township, its 117 slaves constituted only 10 percent of the population. The 172 slaves in Bonne Femme Township represented 15.5 percent of persons residing there. On the other hand, in Richmond Township outside Fayette, Howard's county seat,

TABLE 1. PERCENTAGE OF SLAVE POPULATION FOR MISSOURI COUNTIES WITH THE LARGEST NUMBER OF SLAVES, 1860 County Whites Free Blacks Slaves Percent of Slaves

Howard* 9,986 74 5,886 36.9 Saline* 9,800 23 4,876 33.2 Lafayette* 13,688 36 6,374 31.7 Callaway* 12,895 31 4,523 25.9 Boone* 14,399 53 5,034 25.8 Clay* 9,525 43 3,455 25.5 Cooper* 13,528 28 3,800 21.9 Pike 14,362 60 4,055 21.9 Jackson 18,969 70 3,944 17.2 St. Louis" 186,178 1,865 4,345 2.3

Totals for Little Dixie 83,821 288 33,948 28.8 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population of the United States in 1860: Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1864).

* Little Dixie County

" In 1860 the City of St. Louis was still a part of St. Louis County; thus, many of its slaves were urban workers, especially on the riverfront, and house servants. 242 Missouri Historical Review the 1,231 slaves outnumbered the 1,176 whites. In Chariton Township out­ side Glasgow, there were more slaves (1,191) than whites (1,147). Slaves equaled 51 percent of the population in the rural areas of each of these town­ ships (see table 2). Lafayette County had the largest absolute number of slaves, 6,374, which made up 31.7 percent of its population. Four of the county's eight townships (Clay, Lexington, Dover, and Middleton) adjoin the Missouri River, which forms the county's northern border. In 1860 those four townships had 57.1 percent of the county's improved farmland, contained 73.5 percent of its

TABLE 2. LITTLE DIXIE TOWNSHIPS WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF SLAVES, 1860 Wliites Free Blacks Slaves Percent of Slaves

Lafayette County Lexington Township (excluding Lexington) 1,132 1,269 52.7

Howard County Richmond Township (excluding Fayette) 1,176 1,231 51.1

Howard County Chariton Township (excluding Glasgow) 1,147 1,191 50.9

Boone County Columbia Township (excluding Columbia) 1,743 12 1,486 45.9

Saline County Arrow Rock Township (excluding Arrow Rock) 1,069 44.7

Lafayette County Dover Township 1,101 43 1,454 Lafayette County Middleton Township 1,007 739 42.1

Howard County Franklin Township 1,361 24 998 41.9

Saline County Marshall Township (excluding Marshall) 967 0 ca. 675 ca. 41.1 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Population Schedule, "Howard County," "Lafayette County," and "Saline County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, rolls 623, 628, 645) and Slave Schedule, "Howard County," "Lafayette County," and "Saline County" (rolls 662, 664). Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 243

slaves, and grew 78.8 percent of its hemp (see table 3). As in Howard County, the percentage of slaves in Lafayette County varied greatly by township. By 1860, German immigrant farmers from the Kingdom of Hanover filled the eastern half of Freedom Township, a primarily prairie township in the south­ eastern corner of the county. The Germans did not own slaves, so the town­ ship counted only 273 bondsmen who formed 16.1 percent of the population. No farm in the township lay less than thirteen miles from the river; thus in the pre-railroad era, area farmers had no convenient way to transport large amounts of staple crops. Sni-a-bar Township, in the county's southwest cor­ ner, contained somewhat rougher terrain than the rest of the county. Its 310 slaves made up 21.9 percent of its total population. By contrast, along the river in Lexington Township, 1,269 slaves lived outside the limits of the town, with only 1,137 free persons (including 5 free blacks); slaves made up 52.7 percent of the rural population. By 1860 slaves outnumbered white farmers and their families in the rural areas of three townships (Lexington, Richmond, and Chariton) in west cen­ tral Missouri. In six additional townships—Columbia in Boone, Franklin in Howard, Marshall and Arrow Rock in Saline, and Dover and Middleton in Lafayette—across the whole township or in the farmlands outside the towns, slaves represented from 41.1 to 45.9 percent of the population (see table 2). Six of these townships, Lexington, Dover, Middleton, Arrow Rock, Chariton, and Franklin, abutted the Missouri River (see map 2). Fewer than one in ten Missourians (9.6 percent) lived in hereditary bondage in 1860. Even within the seven Little Dixie counties, less than one- third of the population (28.8 percent) were slaves. But on the eve of the Civil War, a person could travel overland for eighty miles, from Columbia to a few miles west of Lexington, crossing the river between Glasgow and Arrow Rock, and seldom be out of countiyside where slaves composed from two- fifths to more than half of the population.6 The portion of the Missouri Slave Belt, or Black Belt, in which more than two-fifths of the population were slaves seldom extended for a width of as much as ten miles. In contrast, the entire states of South Carolina and Mississippi contained slave majorities in 1860. But the Missouri Slave Belt was noteworthy for several reasons. First, it lay a great distance from the major areas of slave population in the South. Located just north of the 39th parallel, the Slave Belt was north of the entire Confederacy, excepting three counties in Virginia as that state existed after 1863. While it lay thirty to forty

6 In general, political matters are beyond the scope of this study, but it can be noted that Joseph O. Shelby, Missouri's Confederate cavalry commander, lived in Middleton Township, Lafayette County; Sterling Price, the commander of the Missouri Confederate army, lived near Keytesville in Chariton County, just a few miles from Chariton Township in Howard County; and Claiborne Fox Jackson, Missouri's secessionist governor, divided his time between his in­ laws' home near Arrow Rock in Saline County and his farm near Fayette in Howard County. The presence of so much wealth in slaves in the immediate vicinities of the homes of these men may have influenced the political positions they took as war approached. 244 Missouri Historical Review

TABLE 3. COMPARISON OF LAFAYETTE COUNTY TOWNSHIPS Four Northern Townships Four Southern Townships 1860 1870 1860 1870 Per Per Per Per Improved Improved Improved Improved Acre Acre Acre Acre Improved Acres 85,727 76,823 64,377 90,306

Value of Farms $5,337,378 $62.26 $4,458,263 $58.03 $2,444,918 $37.98 $4,148,109 $45.93

Slaves 4,178a .049 1,504 .023

Horses 2,929 .034 2,827 .037 3,313 .051 4,127 .046

Mules and Asses 1,478 .017 1,326 .017 1,347 .021 1,434 .016

Milk Cows 3,201 .037 2,271 .030 3,161 .049 3,260 .036

Other Cattle 8,059 .094 4,476 .058 7,023 .109 5,965 .066

Hogs 29,831 .350 15,970 .210 23,484 .360 17,425 .190

Com (bushels) 1,072,865 12.500 744,758 9.7 899,866 14.000 790,211 8.800

Hay (tons) 4,725 .055 2,948 .038 2,727 .042 4,338 .048

Hemp (tons) 3,623 .042 933 .012 974 .015 445 .005

Wlieat (bushels) 29,646 .350 244,939 3.190 20,753 .320 179,587 1.990

Oats (bushels^ 39,347 .460 88,577 1.150 17,825 .280 180,787 2.000 Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Agriculture Schedule and U.S. Census Bureau, Ninth Census of the United States 1870, Agriculture Schedule.

Six hundred and ninety-two slaves in the City of Lexington omitted from this figure. miles south of an extension of the Mason-Dixon Line, it was north of a line running west from the nation's capital. It was also quite far west, with its eastern end over one hundred miles west of the Mississippi River. The Slave Belt was closer to Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois, all of which were free by law, than to states with dense slave populations.7 To the south lay three hundred miles of Ozark Plateau and hills where few slaves lived.

7 Little Dixie's political leaders knew the geographical vulnerability of slavery in western Missouri. By 1860 runaways were about four times as common in Missouri as in the nation as a whole. Hurt, Agriculture and Slavery, 258-259. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 245

Lafayette County

Boone County

Dr. Gregory Haddock, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville Map 2. Little Dixie Townships with Over Forty Percent of the Rural Population Enslaved, 1860

The Slave Belt also formed an exception to several of the important gen­ eralizations used to characterize slavery in Missouri. John G. Haskell, a New Englander living in Kansas who observed Missouri slavery firsthand, wrote several decades after slavery's end: "Slavery in western Missouri was like slaveiy in northern Kentucky—much more a domestic than a commercial institution. Family servants constituted the bulk of ownership, and few fam­ ilies owned more than one family of blacks. The social habits were those of the farm and not of the plantation. The white owner, with his sons, labored in the same fields with the negroes both old and young."8 Historians have followed Haskell's lead.9 Within the Missouri Slave Belt, however, the institution was commercial, as attested by the production of hemp and tobacco for the market. It is true that large gangs of slaves were relatively rare in Little Dixie. Hurt has pointed out that the average Little Dixie slaveholder owned 6.1 slaves, and only 4 percent of Little Dixie slave­ owners qualified as planters, owning at least five hundred acres and 20

8 John G. Haskell, "The Passing of Slavery in Western Missouri," Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society 1 (1901-1902): 31. 9 The idea that Missouri slavery was farm-based rather than plantation-based is central in a new study by Diane Mutti Burke, "On Slavery's Borders: Slavery and Slaveholding on Missouri's Farms, 1821-1865" (PhD diss., Emory University, 2004). Burke tries to avoid ana­ lyzing slavery in the Missouri Slave Belt, instead concentrating on Chariton, Clay, Cooper, Marion, and Ste. Genevieve Counties, which she views as more characteristic of slavery in the state as a whole. But because so much of the surviving manuscript evidence pertaining to Missouri slavery is from Slave Belt counties, Burke has used a considerable amount of that information in her research. 246 Missouri Historical Review slaves.10 One hundred-and-fifty-one of these planters resided in Howard, Saline, and Lafayette Counties, in which eight of the nine townships men­ tioned above were located. One of these planters was William Shelby of Waverly, who owned 84 slaves in 1860. When his daughter, Betty, married her cousin, Joseph O. Shelby, the future Confederate general, in July 1858, a bolt of red velvet cloth was laid as a carpet from the front porch of the William Shelby house down to the river landing where Jo Shelby's private steamboat awaited to take the newlyweds and their guests on an excursion to St. Louis for days of champagne and sight-seeing.11 Few others had attained such luxury in this still somewhat raw society only forty years beyond its ini­ tial settlement, but everyone in the Slave Belt would have known landowners who did not have to work in the fields. Likewise, overseers were seldom

10 Hurt, Agriculture and Slaveiy, 219. The average number of slaves per owner was slight­ ly higher in the areas with the most slaves: Middleton Township, 10.7; Chariton Township, 10.3; Lexington Township, 10.1; and Richmond Township, 8.1. These figures are inflated by a few owners who held a large number of slaves. The median number of slaves per owner in the above townships ranged from 8.5 in Middleton to 6.5 in Richmond. U.S. Census Bureau, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Slave Schedule, "Lafayette County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, roll 662), 315-322, 343-351; ibid., "Howard County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, roll 662), 431-443.

11 Daniel O'Flaherty, General Jo Shelby: Undefeated Rebel (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1954), 49-50.

Before the Civil War, Joseph O. Shelby and his wife, Betty, lived in a mansion overlooking the town of Waverly in Lafayette County. [SHSMO 016843, SHSMO 016844] Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 247

found in Missouri; there were only 256 in the state in I860.12 Here again, parts of the Slave Belt proved an exception to the pattern in Missouri. Census takers found 28 overseers in the four Lafayette County townships that bor­ dered the river.13 As on Southern plantations, slaves on the farms and plantations of Little Dixie produced staple crops for a distant market. Farmers in Lafayette and Saline Counties specialized in producing hemp. Most American-grown hemp was for cotton bales in the South. Hemp fiber was woven into coarse burlap cloth or twisted into rope to both wrap and bind the bales. More geographi­ cally specialized than tobacco, hemp required more hard labor in its produc­ tion. Breaking the stems of the dried plants from the usable fibers inside was a dirty, difficult job nearly always done by hand and usually by slaves. In 1849 more than 90 percent of the hemp grown in the United States came from Kentucky and Missouri, with Kentucky producing slightly more. According to a report by the Kentucky State Agriculture Society, Missouri had taken the lead by 1859. The 1860 census report provides a far different view because, as James F. Hopkins, the leading historian of the Kentucky hemp industry, pointed out half a century ago, the census taker in Garrard County, Kentucky, apparently confused tons with pounds!14 Hopkins estimated that Kentucky produced 15,000 tons or less in 1859. The published census figures for Missouri are also questionable. The published figure for hemp production in Lafayette County in 1859 is 3,547 tons. But aggregation page by page from the manuscript agricultural schedule of the census produces a figure of 4,596 tons.13 Using Hopkins's estimate of 15,000 tons as the total hemp production in Kentucky and the figures from the manuscript schedule for Lafayette and

12 Trexler, Slavery in Missouri, 28n79. 13 Hemp growers were more likely than tobacco growers to use overseers. The census tak­ ers found only five overseers in the two townships of Howard County with slave majorities. U.S. Census Bureau, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Population Schedule, "Howard County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, roll 623), 420-450, 495-524. 14 James F. Hopkins, A Histoiy of the Hemp Industiy in Kentucky (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1951), 109, 110-111. Most unfortunately, an otherwise very careful and detailed doctoral dissertation on hemp in western Missouri uses Hopkins's book but fails to note the colossal error Hopkins discovered in the published figures for hemp production in Kentucky. William Council Holmes Jr., "Nineteenth Century Hemp Culture in the Missouri River Valley" (PhD diss., Texas A&M University, 1982), 97-98.

15 The published amount for Saline County, 3,920 tons, is also less than that recorded in the manuscript schedule, 4,073 tons. The 1850 census figures for Missouri hemp production are also questionable. According to published figures, Platte County produced 4,345 tons in 1849, about one-eighth of all the domestic dew-rotted hemp produced in the nation that year. U.S. Census Bureau, The Seventh Census of the United States, 1850: Embracing a Statistical View of Each of the States and Territories Arranged by Counties, Towns, etc. (Washington, DC: R. Armstrong, 1853), 680. Although the manuscript census schedule and the published census report agree, it is likely that the 1850 Platte County census taker exaggerated production of hemp and other commodities. Ten years later, with improved acres up 27.4 percent and the number of slaves up 19.6 percent, the county produced 29.4 percent less wheat, 4.2 percent less 248 Missouri Historical Review

Saline Counties in Missouri, the latter state outpaced Kentucky by as much as 5,000 tons. Lafayette and Saline Counties, with 8,669 tons, were responsible for more than two-fifths of Missouri's production. Farmers in Howard and Boone Counties specialized in tobacco, also grown elsewhere in Little Dixie and around the state. Missouri's tobacco pro­ duction peaked at 25 million pounds in 1860. Little Dixie, with 16.5 percent of the state's improved acres of farmland, produced 22 percent of its tobacco, or 5.5 million pounds.16 Tobacco production was less dependent on the labor of slaves than was hemp production. Chariton, the leading tobacco-growing county in the state through much of the nineteenth century, was not a leading slave county and thus not one of the seven studied by Hurt. Two Little Dixie counties grew enough tobacco to be placed among the state's leading pro­ ducers: Howard ranked second with 2.9 million pounds, and Callaway ranked fourth with 1.4 million pounds. Within Howard, the three townships with the most slaves, Chariton, Richmond, and Franklin, accounted for 64.9 percent of the county's slaves and 53.2 percent of its improved acres but grew only 49.8 percent of its tobacco.17 Nonetheless, areas of slave-based tobacco production arose in Little Dixie. Despite its considerable production of non-edible cash crops for distant markets in the antebellum period, Little Dixie was also an important produc­ er of feed grains and livestock. Little Dixie produced nearly as much corn per improved acre as did all of Missouri (see table 4). More than four-fifths of the Missouri average of hogs and feeder cattle were raised in the region. Hurt found evidence of substantial quantities of pork, beef, and grain being shipped from Little Dixie, and locally raised horses, mules, and oxen were sold to persons wanting to travel overland to the far west.18 At the same time, according to Hurt, "Farmers in Lafayette County became such specialists in hemp production that they failed to meet basic needs for grain and meat."19 A glance at the limited production of wheat in corn, and 62.3 percent less hemp. It also had fewer milk cows, other cattle, and hogs. U.S. Census Bureau, Agriculture of the United States in 1860: Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1864), 88-95. The rise of Weston as a major place for outfitting overland expeditions to the Pacific Coast could have dis­ rupted Platte County agricultural patterns, but exaggeration in 1850 is also likely. Platte County, now known for tobacco, did not become Missouri's premier producer of that crop until near the end of the nineteenth century.

16 Agriculture of the U.S. in 1860, 91, 92, 95, 96. " Aggregated from Eighth Census of the United States, I860, Agriculture Schedule, "Howard County." 18 Hurt, Agriculture and Slaveiy, 129, 138, 142-145. " Ibid., 120-121. In a reexamination of many of the same issues published two years after his book, Hurt acknowledged, "The planters of Little Dixie also apparently met the food needs of their labor force." R. Douglas Hurt, "Planters and Slavery in Little Dixie," Missouri Historical Review 88 (July 1994): 408. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 249

TABLE 4. VALUE OF LITTLE DIXIE FARMS AND CHIEF PRODUCTS, 1860, 1870, AND 1880 1859-1860 1869-1870 1879-1880 Amount Index* Amount Index* Amount Index* Improved Acres 1,033,399 1,209,265 1,391,364 Value of Farms $37,439,505 98.1 $49,508,550 95.1 $42,389,482 107.1 Value of Implements $1,230,133 85.4 $1,723,212 83.4 $1,665,361 87.3 Horses 47,269 79.0 49,705 76.0 69,262 98.4 Mules and Asses 20,245 151.2 18,295 123.9 25,637 126.7 Milk Cows 41,518 72.7 38,757 73.4 37,341 53.6 Other Cattle 90,975 83.7 70,942 77.7 109,214 73.5 Sheep 133,520 86.1 138,175 77.2 171,153 115.1 Hogs 348,076 89.4 260,974 85.4 410,188 85.5 Corn (bushels) 11,517,805 95.5 9,722,136 111.2 19,772,024 92.7 Wheat (bushels) 437,392 62.5 2,205,063 101.2 3,588,823 136.4 Oats (bushels) 468,012 76.9 2,002,833 91.2 1,841,877 84.6 Hemp (tons) 9,889 352.2 2,056 551.3 124 563.2 Tobacco (pounds) 5,521,236 133.0 2,270,975 139.2 1,794,711 141.7 * The index numbers display animals on hand or crop production per improved acre of farmland (in 1880, per tilled acre of farmland) relative to the state of Missouri as a whole. An index of 100 means Little Dixie is producing the commodity in the same amount per improved acre as is all Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Agriculture of the United States in 1860: Compiled fi-om the Original Returns of the Eighth Census (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1864); U.S. Census Bureau, Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Statistics of Agriculture (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1872); U.S. Census Bureau, Report of the Productions of Agriculture as Returned at the Tenth Census (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1883). 1859 seems to confirm this assertion, but it may be that the wheat harvest was simply poor in western Missouri that year. With two-thirds more improved acres than in 1849, Little Dixie farmers harvested 15 percent less wheat. From 1849 to 1859, wheat production for all of Missouri grew from 3 to 4.2 million bushels, but bushels of wheat harvested per improved acre dropped from 1.01 to .68.20 This could have been a result of relatively fewer acres being sowed in wheat, but a bad harvest year in 1859 may also have been responsible. Whatever the situation, Lafayette County produced more corn per improved acre than did Missouri as a whole in 1859, and in absolute num­ bers, no other Missouri county harvested so many bushels of corn that year. Since hemp did not require the nearly continuous attention throughout the growing season that was necessary for a successful tobacco or cotton crop, slaves who produced hemp also had time for the production of corn and other farm commodities. They also raised much livestock. The county's numbers of hogs and feeder cattle per improved acre were well over 90 percent of the state average, and Missouri was a state with food to export. In absolute num­ bers, Lafayette had more cattle, other than milk cows and working oxen, than

20 Seventh Census . . . Statistical View, 677; Agriculture of the U.S. in 1860, 63. 250 Missouri Historical Review any other county in the state and was third in the total number of swine.21 A breakdown of county agricultural statistics into northern and southern town­ ships suggests that farmers and planters living in townships with the most slaves and that grew the most hemp also produced considerable amounts of corn, pork, and beef (see table 3). Admittedly, there were fewer dairy cows, and wheat production was lower. This may imply that slaves were fed more corn bread, corn meal mush, and pork while free fanners ate more butter and wheat bread. In any event, the hemp farmers and planters of Little Dixie also produced large quantities of foodstuffs. The Civil War devastated much of Little Dixie.22 The region was never as important to Missouri or to the nation after the war as it had been in the decades just preceding the conflict. The emancipation of Little Dixie's slaves was accompanied by rapid changes in the region's agriculture, which in turn, produced a slow but persistent demographic transformation. In the century following emancipation, Little Dixie shared ever less with such prototypical southern regions as the Cotton Belt, and it became ever more a part of the Midwestern Corn Belt. First, the war reduced Little Dixie's labor supply. A large number of the region's men volunteered or were pressed into the armies. They fought each other at battles within the area, including battles in Boonville and Lexington in 1861 and Marshall in 1863, and just outside the area at Westport in 1864. Many were absent for years as they fought in such distant places as Mississippi and Virginia. Some Little Dixie men accompanied Waverly's Joseph Shelby on his postwar expedition to Mexico and did not return until 1867.23 Guerrilla bands and the armies of both sides frequently crisscrossed the area and confiscated whatever they liked or needed. They also burned or destroyed as they thought expedient in pursuit of their military objectives and

21 Agriculture of the U.S. in 1860, 88-95. 22 Table 4 illustrates that the region's farms were valued at 32.2 percent more in 1870 than in 1860. But owing to Civil War inflation, wholesale prices had risen 45.2 percent, and consumer prices had risen 41 percent during the same period. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1975), 1: 201, 212. Because unproved land was worth much more than unimproved land, and additional land had been improved during the 1860s, the real value of the area's farms fell considerably even with addition­ al improved acres. During the 1870s, the value of Little Dixie farms per improved acre fell by 25 percent, closely matching the decline of the wholesale price index over the same period.

23 Richard S. Brownlee, Gray Ghosts of the Confederacy: Guerrilla Warfare in the West, 1861-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1958); Michael Fellman, Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989); Edward E. Leslie, The Devil Knows How to Ride: The True Stay of William Clarke Quantrill and His Confederate Raiders (New York: Da Capo Press, 1998). Many of the events described in these books took place within Little Dixie. For an account of a little-known massacre on the border of Lafayette and Saline Counties see Robert W. Frizzell, '"Killed By Rebels': A Civil War Massacre and Its Aftermath," Missouri Historical Review 71 (July 1977): 369-395. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 251 to extract revenge from enemy sympathizers. Some white farmers fled and never returned. During the war, significant numbers of slaves, especially in the western counties of Little Dixie, fled to Kansas, St. Louis, larger towns in the region, or the Union army.24 Reportedly, six hundred of Howard County's nine hundred black men of military age joined the Union ranks.25 Many did not return. Sometimes freed slaves were driven away. On January 11, 1865, a state convention legally emancipated Missouri's remaining slaves. Two months later, Union General Clinton B. Fisk wrote:

Slaveiy dies hard. ... In Boone, Howard, Randolph, and Callaway the emancipation ordinance has caused disruption of society equal to anything I

24 For more information on the flight of Missouri slaves to other areas and their enlistment in the Federal army during the war see Burke, "On Slavery's Borders," 318-322, and Leslie A. Schalm, '"Overrun with Free Negroes': Emancipation and Wartime Migration in the Upper Midwest," Civil War Histoiy 50 (June 2004): 154-155. Richard B. Sheridan summarizes the movement of western Missouri slaves to Kansas both before and during the war in "From Slaveiy in Missouri to Freedom in Kansas: The Influx of Black Fugitives and Contrabands Into Kansas, 1854-1865," Kansas Histoiy 12 (Spring 1989): 28-47.

25 Lorenzo J. Greene, Gary R. Kremer, and Antonio F. Holland, Missouri's Black Heritage, rev. ed. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993), 80. This observation would seem to underestimate the number of black males of military age in Howard County. In Chariton SHSMO 001754

I 252 Missouri Historical Review

saw in Arkansas or Mississippi in the year 1863. I blush for my race when I discover the wicked barbarity of the late masters and mistresses of the recently freed persons of the counties heretofore named. ... Some few have driven their black people away from them with nothing to eat or scarcely to wear. ... the poor blacks are rapidly concentrating in the towns and espe­ cially at garrisoned places. My hands and heart are full. I am finding homes for them in Northwest Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Iowa. There is much sickness and suffering amoung them; many need help.26

The production of many key agricultural commodities plunged in Little Dixie due to the confiscation and deliberate destruction of property, the driv­ ing away or flight of portions of both the black and the white populations, and the elimination of slavery as a system of farm labor. After the war, new immi­ grants quickly took the place of those who had left, but most of the new fann­ ers had come from states of the Old Northwest or from Europe where differ­ ent types of farming prevailed.27 By 1870, after five years of postwar recov­ ery, Little Dixie had 1,950 fewer mules, 2,761 fewer milk cows, 20,033 fewer other cattle, and 87,102 fewer hogs compared to a decade earlier. Despite 222,000 additional improved acres compared to 1859, the farms of Little Dixie grew 1.8 million fewer bushels of corn in 1869.28 The areas of Little Dixie with the most slaves were the hardest hit. Within the four Lafayette County townships abutting the Missouri River, corn production declined 30.6 percent. These townships contained 46.5 percent fewer hogs in 1870 than a decade earlier. Not only were there fewer cattle and mules but also fewer sheep and horses. In these townships, even the number of improved acres fell 10.4 percent as weeds and saplings took root in uncultivated fields and Virginia rail fences rotted away so that the land again became open prairie or timbered. The value of farms per improved acre fell by 6.8 percent in number of dollars, but because of inflation between 1860 and 1870, land in the four townships lost half its real value (see table 3).

Township in 1860, males between the ages of fifteen and forty-five made up 25.5 percent of the resident slaves. The corresponding figure for Richmond Township is 24.8 percent. Thus, over nine hundred male slaves of military age should have lived in the county. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Slave Schedule, "Howard County," roll 662, 315-322, 343-351.

26 Quoted in Greene, Kremer, and Holland, Missouri s Black Heritage, 91. 27 Overall, the population of each county grew with every nineteenth-century census. Beginning in the 1850s, immigration from the northern states and Europe into rural Missouri surpassed immigration from the southern states. William E. Parrish, A Histoiy of Missouri, Volume III, 1860-1875 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1973), 7; Russel L. Gerlach, Settlement Patterns in Missouri: A Study of Population Origins (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1986), 30-31.

28 Agriculture of the U.S. in 1860, 88-95; U.S. Census Bureau, Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Statistics of Agriculture (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1872), 188-195. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 253

The production of the primary prewar cash crops, tobacco and hemp, declined more precipitously than did the production of feed grains and live­ stock. From 1859 to 1869, hemp production in the seven counties fell 79 per­ cent, from 9,889 to 2,056 tons. Hemp production never recovered. In 1879 only 124 tons were produced. When the Civil War broke out, the federal gov­ ernment had prohibited merchants from shipping bagging and rope to the South.29 This action destroyed the hemp market in both Missouri and Kentucky for the remainder of the war. Southern planters substituted wood­ en boards and barrel hoops for the rope. Demand returned in 1866 in the form of higher hemp prices, which remained strong through the end of the decade, but production did not resurge to meet the demand. Evidence from Lafayette County suggests that former hemp growers did not respond to the strong mar­ ket of the late 1860s due to lack of labor. In Lexington Township, where slaves had composed a majority of the rural population in 1860, hemp pro­ duction fell 75 percent between 1859 and 1869 (from 952.5 to 234.5 tons). The only Lafayette County township that recorded a more modest decline was Freedom, where German immigrant farmers produced much of the hemp with their own hard labor. There, during the same years, hemp production fell only 17 percent, from 246 to 204 tons.30 One historian has asserted, rather as an afterthought, that Little Dixie farmers turned to tobacco as their cash crop in the postwar years.31 This clear­ ly did not happen. From 1859 to 1869, tobacco production in the seven coun­ ties fell by 58.9 percent. In Howard County, tobacco production fell from 2.9 million pounds to .8 million pounds. This was not a temporary development. In the seven counties, tobacco production fell another 21 percent from 1869 to 1879.32 By 1920, with the entire state of Missouri producing only 4 mil­ lion pounds, only three Little Dixie counties were among the top ten produc­ ers, and the three together produced less than half a million pounds.33 After the Civil War, Little Dixie farmers joined their counterparts in other regions of the state in greatly expanding the production of small grains—oats

29 Hopkins, History of the Hemp Industry, 193, 197-205. Unlike Kentucky, Missouri did not participate in the hemp revival of the 1880s caused by the demand for binder twine. 30 U.S. Census Bureau, Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Agriculture Schedule, "Lafayette County." 31 Hurt, Agriculture and Slavery, 305. Hurt did not study the period after the war. Holmes, in "Nineteenth Century Hemp Culture," wrote a section titled "Agriculture in the Post-War- Years" (pp. 263-276). He also failed to notice the switch to wheat as a cash crop, which is quite clear in published census reports.

32 U.S. Census Bureau, Report of the Productions of Agriculture as Returned by the Tenth Census (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1883), 290, 292. 33 Much of Missouri's tobacco production had moved up the Missouri River to Platte and Buchanan Counties. U.S. Census Bureau, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1922), vol. 6, pt. 1: 600-610. 254 Missouri Historical Review and especially wheat. They increasingly relied upon wheat, which required substantial labor only at rather brief sowing and harvesting times and, by the 1860s, necessitated a considerable investment in machinery, as their cash crop in recovering from the war's devastation. The decline of slave-produced hemp and tobacco, the introduction of extensive sowing of wheat and oats, and the failure to introduce Southern-style sharecropping to the region trans­ formed Little Dixie. An area in which slaves had been a majority of the 1860 population in several locations was well on its way to becoming a part of the agricultural Midwest a mere decade later, at least in an economic sense. In the decades after the Civil War, Missouri became a nationally impor­ tant wheat-growing state for the first time. During this period, the nation's cities grew rapidly, and the export of American wheat increased by a factor of five. High demand and differential decreases in transportation costs led farm­ ers to small grains in general and especially to wheat.34 Missouri had ranked fifteenth in wheat production just before the war but moved to tenth in 1869 before reaching its apogee of seventh place in 1889.35 From the eve of the war to the first census afterward, the wheat harvest in Missouri grew from 4.2 to 14.3 million bushels. Production of wheat per improved acre of farmland rose from .68 to 1.58 bushels. Within Little Dixie, the turn to wheat was even more dramatic. The harvest increased from 437,392 to 2,205,063 bushels. The average production per improved acre rose from .42 to 1.82 bushels. Ten years later, in 1879, the wheat harvest in Little Dixie had jumped again—to nearly 3.4 million bushels.36 Lafayette County farmers began to rely on wheat for cash as they had once relied on hemp.37 From a harvest of less than 51,000 bushels in 1859, the county's harvest expanded 8.42 times in the next decade and reached nearly 1,500,000 bushels in 1889.38 Before the war, the produc­ tion of wheat was much more evenly distributed across the county than hemp

34 Mary Eschelbach Gregson, "Rural Response to Increased Demand: Crop Choice in the Midwest, 1860-1880," Journal of Economic History 53 (June 1993): 332-334. 35 U.S. Census Bureau, Reports of the Statistics of Agriculture in the United States at the Eleventh Census, 1890 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1895), 78, 98. 36 Agriculture of the U.S. in 1860, 89, 93; 1870 Statistics of Agriculture, 189, 193; Report of the Productions of Agriculture as Returned by the Tenth Census, 195-197. 37 For example, a rural German Protestant congregation in Freedom Township delayed its plans to build a new parsonage in 1875 due to the failure of the wheat harvest that year. Protokollbuch [St. John Church, Emma, MO], Minutes of the Congregational Meeting, 12 August 1875, Bethel United Church of Christ Parish Office, Concordia. Interestingly, Hopkins notes in Hemp Industry in Kentucky that the state's hemp growers were already turning to wheat by the late 1850s (p. 110).

38 The great increase in wheat production may have helped to bring about the 1870s rail­ road building boom in the region, with the construction of lines such as the Lexington and St. Louis Railroad and the western branch of the Chicago and Alton Railroad. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Centwy Missouri 255

•:. «• <^<.: ; /•lV" v' l-i's „.,.": '(.j *Vr. I.,'-"

• ? i, r 1 ^•>. ^? ^ -*? i"-T ,,-/,«T,--,»'-l-, :'.Or* ••"••*/•.. ','A

SHSMO 026747 Lafayette County Farm, 1877

(see table 3). In 1869 only two of the county's eight townships harvested less wheat than the entire county had haivested ten years earlier. Immediately after the war, the Missouri and Little Dixie revolution in small grains also included oats. While wheat production climbed 404.1 per­ cent in the seven counties from 1859 to 1869, the harvesting of oats climbed 332.2 percent, and at just over 2 million bushels in the latter year, nearly equaled wheat production. The production of oats in these same counties, however, reached a plateau decades before the production of wheat.39 Little Dixie redeveloped one agricultural specialty after the war that was typical of the South rather than the Midwest—mules. The long-eared animals had been brought to the region by the early traders who opened the Santa Fe Trail in 1821 and 1822, and settlers coming from Kentucky brought j acks and jennets with them. Nathaniel Leonard, an important farmer in Cooper County, imported a jack from Malta in the 1830s.40 By that time, a significant number of Missouri mules was exported to other states. Missouri mule pro­ duction was centered in Little Dixie and nearby counties. In 1860, Little Dixie had one and a half times as many mules per improved acre as Missouri overall. The area experienced an absolute loss of mules during the next ten years, and in later decades, mules gained popularity in other parts of the state.

35 The production of oats may have plateaued earlier because that crop was used primari­ ly to feed livestock. Wheat, on the other hand, fed the burgeoning population of the industrial cities of the United States and Europe.

Hurt, Agriculture and Slaveiy, 144-145. 256 Missouri Historical Review

Yet, in 1870, Saline County had the most mules in the state, with Callaway, Lafayette, Boone, Cooper, and Howard in fourth through eighth places. In 1880 four Little Dixie counties—Callaway, Lafayette, Boone, and Saline— led the state in numbers of mules. Ten years later, Saline was back in first place, followed by Callaway and Boone; Lafayette and Cooper occupied fifth and sixth places. Missouri led the nation in numbers of mules from 1870 through 1890 but was overtaken by Texas in 1900. Mules remained eco­ nomically important in Little Dixie until about the end of World War II.41 Little Dixie counties continued to be important producers of corn, cattle, hogs, and sheep (see table 4). Saline, in particular, specialized in com. In 1909 it was first in Missouri, and it often ranked among the top three in other years.42 After 1879 the top corn-producing counties were likely to be those in the north­ west corner of Missouri. In part, this was due to the sheer size of Nodaway County. In 1880, Saline ranked third in numbers of swine, although it dropped to eighth in 1890. Callaway County farmers came to rely more heavily on sheep and often had more on hand than did any other Missouri county.43 Little Dixie's transition to a midwestern-style farm economy in which, for the most part, the landowners produced small grains and livestock for the market, with progressively less reliance on the labor of a subservient popula­ tion, was facilitated by certain aspects of local culture already present in the antebellum period. Throughout the years before the Civil War, Little Dixie, despite many slaves residing in some localities, remained a society with slaves and never became a slave society—an important distinction made by historian Ira Berlin in analyzing American slavery.44 Even near Lexington and Fayette, the slave/master relationship did not provide the model for all social relationships as is characteristic of a slave society. Although more planters lived in Lafayette, Saline, and Howard Counties than typical for Missouri, they still composed a relatively small portion of the population. Moreover, the intensity of the slave-based economy in Little Dixie existed for only a short time in the years leading up to the Civil War.45

41 Report of the Statistics of Agriculture . . . 1890, 336-337; G K. Renner, "The Mule in Missouri Agriculture," Missouri Historical Review 74 (July 1980): 446, 456.

42 Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Agriculture (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913), 5: 762-763.

43 Report of the Statistics of Agriculture . . . 1890, 255-256.

44 Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A Histoiy of African-American Slaveiy (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2003), 8-9.

45 It might be supposed that the burning of a slave at the stake in Marshall in 1859 would link Saline County to areas in the Deep South. In fact, the most recent study of the incident con­ cludes that it "offers a contrast to" the Deep South where "the planting class dominated the legal process at every step." Thomas G Dyer, '"A Most Unexampled Exhibition of Madness and Brutality': Judge Lynch in Saline County, Missouri, 1859, Part 2," Missouri Historical Review 89 (July 1995): 381. Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 257

The agricultural transition in Little Dixie may have been overlooked by historians, but people in the area at the time noted the change. T. C. Rainey, a merchant who moved to Arrow Rock in Saline County in 1865 and remained there for decades, noted how the mercantile firm of Wood and Huston helped farmers make the necessary economic transition at the end of the war: "Right here was the turning point in the history of the firm, and of farming conditions in Saline [County]. . . . After consulting their farmer friends, it was decided by the partners to buy and introduce implements nec­ essary for the growing and harvesting of wheat, and for cultivating corn on a large scale, preparatory to the feeding of beef cattle and hogs." The firm bought wheat drills, reapers, corn planters, and, perhaps, threshing machines on credit, which was granted due to the reputation of the partners and the quality of Saline County soil. Wood and Huston, in turn, sold the implements to reliable farmers on one year's credit. This venture proved so successful that Wood and Huston left merchandising within a decade and established a bank, which flourished independently for more than a century, in Marshall, the county seat.46 The postwar move to labor-saving agricultural machinery was foreshad­ owed by leading farmers before the war. Hurt may have overstated the case when he wrote: "The planters of Little Dixie operated on a scale of techno­ logical investment and sophistication comparable to many commercial farmers of the North." Nonetheless, a few farmers had begun to mechanize before the end of slavery. M. M. Marmaduke of Arrow Rock bought a thresh­ ing machine in 1856, and two years later, John Locke Hardeman of Saline owned two McCormick reapers.47 Thus, with respect to agricultural production, Little Dixie became a part of the Midwest after the Civil War by initially concentrating on small grains

46 T. C. Rainey, Along the Old Trail: Pioneer Sketches of Arrow Rock and Vicinity (Marshall, MO: Marshall Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 1914), 34-36.

47 Hurt, "Planters and Slavery," 407. Labor-saving agricultural machineiy, such as the thresher, helped to ease the transi­ tion from slave-based agriculture for many Little Dixie farmers. SHSMO 026684

COS: &> EOBBETS' 258 Missouri Historical Review

and then on corn and hogs.48 According to a 1992 atlas of American agricul­ ture, all seven Little Dixie counties are within the Com Belt in our time.49 The enslaved African Americans, who made Little Dixie distinctive in the antebellum years, played an ever-decreasing role in the region's agricul­ tural economy after the war. Their labor and management had been essential to the prewar development of Little Dixie as an economically distinctive region, but the situation changed with the end of slavery. The black popula­ tion of the seven counties declined 25.1 percent between 1860 and 1870. The freedmen and freedwomen who remained in Little Dixie worked as farmhands, household servants, and laborers, but the demand for agricultural labor was not as strong as before the war. Farmers switched to less labor- intensive crops, purchased more machinery, and broke up the larger tracts of land for sale to individual white farmers who, with their families, performed most of their own labor.50 In places such as Saline County's Pennytown, some African Americans eventually owned small plots of land, but even these freedmen usually needed outside jobs. Blacks who owned land were an exception among freedmen. In Lafayette County's Lexington Township in 1870, only 2 of 126 black families owned property.51

4S After the Civil War, Missouri farmers became more commercial and diversified as they added small grain production to raising feed grains (corn) and livestock. Mary Eschelbach Gregson, "Specialization in Late-Nineteenth-Century Midwestern Agriculture: Missouri as a Test Case," Agricultural Histoiy 61 (Winter 1993): 16-35. Many Little Dixie farmers, howev­ er, substituted one form of commercialization for another by switching from hemp and tobacco to small grains. As more wheat was produced on the Great Plains in later decades, central Missouri farmers concentrated on corn and hogs. The transition to less wheat and more corn and hogs had occurred several decades earlier in western Illinois. Susan Sessions Rugh, Our Common Country: Family Farming, Culture, and Community in the Nineleenth-Centiiiy Midwest (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 63.

45 Richard Pillsbury and John Florin, Atlas of American Agriculture: The American Cornucopia (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 41. 50 A clear explanation of why sharecropping did not develop among the large population of freedmeni n the region has not yet emerged from the historical record, but perhaps the mat­ ter is less puzzling when considering hemp rather than tobacco. Hemp-breaking was so labori­ ous that few members of a free population, excepting German immigrants, were willing to do it. Moreover, it took several years after emancipation for a sharecropping system to develop, even in the Cotton Belt, and by that time the hemp market had collapsed. Also, unlike cotton, hemp did not require labor for most of the year. If a sharecropper primarily grew hemp, he would have little to do for much of the year. In any event, the only option for most freedmen who remained in Little Dixie was to work as hired labor. In the postwar period, farmers in the Lafayette County townships with the largest prewar slave population used the most hired labor. In 1879 one week of hired labor was used for every 3.54 tilled acres in Lexington Township; in Freedom Township, one week of hired labor was used for each 6.14 tilled acres. U.S. Census Bureau, Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, Agriculture Schedule, "Lafayette County."

51 Greene, Kremer, and Holland, Missouri's Black Heritage, 92. The situation was a little better for blacks in Howard County in 1870. hi Chariton Township, seven of the eighty-one black heads of household owned real estate, and ten owned personal property. In Richmond Township, eight of the ninety-six black household heads owned real estate, and thirty-nine Southern Identity in Nineteenth-Century Missouri 259

While the black population of the seven counties increased during the 1870s, it declined in eveiy subsequent decade. The censuses of 1870, 1920, and 1950 recorded the greatest proportional decreases, with the three sharpest declines following major wars (see table 5). The latter two declines almost surely reflect the expansion of urban employment opportunities for African Americans during the world wars of the twentieth century. Missouri's rural slave-majority areas gradually became nearly void of black people. In 1860, in the rural portions of the three Little Dixie townships with slave majorities, blacks outnumbered whites 3,967 to 3,455. According to the 2000 census, whites outnumbered blacks and people of mixed race 3,911 to 45 in the rural areas of those townships.52 That so few blacks live in the rural portions of Little Dixie today is another factor making the region similar to most other parts of the rural Midwest. Both of the major findings of this study speak to the question of nineteenth- century Missouri's Southern identity. The economic and population structure of Little Dixie's Slave Belt included areas with a slave majority producing large owned personal property. U.S. Census Bureau, Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Population Schedule, "Howard County" (National Archives Microfilm Publication M593, roll 780), 274-302, 419-446.

52 Census results for 1860 and 2000 are reasonably equivalent. While the boundaries of the three townships are unchanged, the towns within them have expanded slightly in area. The economic importance of river towns in Little Dixie rapidly declined with the expansion of rail­ way lines in the 1870s. Towns that serve farmers continue to wane as farms become larger and the rural population falls. In 2000, 11,310 whites, 933 blacks, and 128 people of mixed race lived in the three townships. U.S. Census Bureau, "Detailed Tables," "Census 2000 Summary File 1," American Factfinder, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet? program=DEC& lang=en& ts=.

TABLE 5. BLACK POPULATION IN LITTLE DIXIE COUNTIES, 1860-1960 Year Boone Callaway Clay Cooper Howard Lafayette Saline Total

1860* 5,087 4,554 3,498 3,828 5,960 6,410 4,899 34,236 1870 4,038 3,434 1,846 3,352 5,193 4,039 3,754 25,656 1880 5,082 4,431 1,513 3,502 5,231 4,415 4,931 29,105 1890 4,677 4,448 1,348 3,539 4,544 4,170 5,101 27,827 1900 4,564 4,106 1,115 2,505 4,182 3,677 4,761 24,910 1910 4,185 3,514 1,052 2,878 3,152 2,869 3,784 21,434 1920 3,471 3,230 969 2,404 2,166 2,383 3,126 17,749 1930 3,293 2,504 951 2,070 1,937 1,849 2,700 15,304 1940 3,306 2,472 822 1,827 1,749 1,588 2,313 14,077 1950 3,010 2,043 774 1,233 1,274 1,117 1,589 11,040 1960 3,268 2,028 723 1,196 1,091 968 1,359 10,633 Source: University of Virginia, Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, Historical Census Browser, http.7/fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus.

* Includes slaves and free blacks 260 Missouri Historical Review

amounts of two cash crops. This was a Southern economy. But even within the seven counties of Little Dixie as defined by Hurt, townships were not uniform­ ly Southern by economic activity. Although the Germans in Freedom Township may have raised mostly the same crops, they did not farm as did Jo Shelby fif­ teen miles to then- north near Waverly. While Little Dixie was Southern in a way not even Phillips recognized due to its slave-majority areas, it should be remembered that the area supplied substantial numbers of men other than freed slaves to both armies during the Civil War.53 And, although the culture and pol­ itics of Little Dixie changed slowly and the bitterness of a war lost by the Confederates extended over generations, the economic basis for Little Dixie's Southern identity was rapidly eliminated in the years immediately following 1865. It seems likely, as Stiles argues, that many Little Dixie farmers in the 1870s displayed Southern sympathies by cheering the exploits of Jesse James as trumpeted by John Newman Edwards in the Kansas City Times. Others demonstrated different political sentiments by voting for Republican candidates in state and national elections.54 Large portions of all factions, however, hitched up horses or mules to cultivate corn in June and pitched bundles of wheat or oats into steam-driven separators at threshing time in July, just as did so many other midwestern farmers.

53 The first published history of Saline County includes the names of 453 county men who had served in Confederate military units and 343 who had served in Federal units. Histoiy of Saline County, Missouri (St. Louis: Missouri Historical Co., 1881).

54 For example, in Saline County, after the re-enfranchisement of Southern sympathizers, Ulysses Grant received 31.5 percent of the vote in the 1872 presidential election, and Rutherford B. Hayes won 30.5 percent of the vote in 1876. Ibid., 366, 371.

Lillian "Clothespin" Russell

Kansas City Sun, March 2, 1889

Lillian Russell claims that wearing tights gave her a sore throat. Well, ahem, this is rather a delicate subject to dwell upon, but. . . if the portion of Lillian's anatomy upon which tights are worn, are so constructed as to necessitate the tights being fastened at the neck, thus causing sore throat, she is certainly the most fearfully and wonderftilly made female person that ever was. If we were Miss Russell we would quit the acting business and hire ourself out as a clothespin. 261

NEWS IN BRIEF

Gary R. Kremer, executive director, has recently given several presentations to local Idyllic America: The Woodcuts of Fred historical and genealogical societies, includ­ Geary, which features a select group of prints ing addresses to the Old Munichburg by the Clarence, Missouri, native depicting Association in Jefferson City on December 4, Missouri River steamboats, farm scenes, tav­ 2004, the Missouri Division of Health & erns, houses, circuses, and animals, is on dis­ Social Services in Columbia on December 20, play in the North-South Corridor Gallery 2004, the Boone County Historical Society in through June 17. From April 29 through Columbia on January 16, the Friends of the August 12, seriograph prints by Missouri Missouri State Archives in Jefferson City on artists such as Joe Jones, Lawrence Rugolo, January 20 and 27, the Genealogical Society and Sallie Frost Knerr will be on display in of Central Missouri in Columbia on February the Contemporary Artwork Gallery, also 1, and a presentation on the history of Osage located in the north-south corridor. County to a group of seniors in Linn on The Great Rivers: Artists Interpret the February 9. Mississippi and Missouri remains on display in the Art Gallery through May 13. Pat Holmes, reference specialist, present­ A Restaurant on the Rails: Foodways of ed "The Mysterious Death of Meriwether the Railroad Dining Car, an exhibit created as Lewis" to the Hannah Cole Chapter, part of the Introduction to Folklore class Daughters of the American Revolution on taught by Lisa Rathje through the University February 5 in Boonville as a part of the orga­ of Missouri-Columbia English Department, nization's scholarship fund-raising event. was on display in the east entrance display case from November 30, 2004, through Several groups toured the Society's March 11, 2005. It included photographs of libraries and Art Gallery in November, railroad dining cars, menus, advertisements, December, January, and February, including and quotes from an oral history collected from University of Missouri-Columbia students in Jean Fishback, a former passenger who remi­ the history, social studies, fine arts, and art nisced about the railroad dining experience. history departments, Gentry Middle School Sheet music of Missouri-related songs from and Lee Elementary School students, and the Society's collection is currently on display Public History Alliance of Missouri members. in the case.

In honor of Women's History Month, the The twenty-seventh annual Mid-America Western Historical Manuscript Collection- Conference on History will be held Columbia (WHMC-C) hosted a reception September 22-24 at the University of Kansas- honoring the donation of the Helen Stephens Lawrence. Papers, with a book signing by Sharon Kinney Proposals for sessions and papers on all Hanson, Stephens's biographer, on March 2 in aspects of history are welcome. The deadline the reading room. The reception featured an for submissions is May 15. Those interested exhibit of the Fulton-born Olympic hack star in organizing a session or presenting a paper and professional basketball player's materi­ should submit their proposal to Jeffery als. Stephens's papers were transferred to Moran, Department of History, University of WHMC-C by Hanson, whose book, Hie Life Kansas, 3001 Wescoe Hall, 1445 Jayhawk of Helen Stephens: The Fulton Flash, was Boulevard, Lawrence, KS 66045, or via e- published in 2004 by Southern Illinois mail [email protected]. University Press. 262

MISSOURI HISTORY IN NEWSPAPERS

Anderson Graphic November 24, 2004: "State Representative [Marilyn Ruestman] views old [Cardwell Memorial] hospital at Stella," by Sheila Newell. January 19, 2005: "70 years of servicing the American Dream: [Fred Moss and Charley Farrer Garage and] Chevrolet agency starts in Southwest City, now at Jane state line," by George Pogue.

Bolivar Herald-Free Press December 31, 2004: "Bolivar's rock landmark," Bolivar Herald-Free Press building.

Camdenton Reporter January 12, 2005: "A Little Bit of Ozark History," by Jan Snyder.

Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian November 22, 2004: "Secret Tunnels?" in downtown Cape Girardeau rumored to be a part of the underground railroad, by Jon K. Rust. December 12: "Not Gettysburg, not Vicksburg: Southwest Missouri town [Newtonia] struggles to preserve Civil War sites," by James Goodwin. January 19, 2005: "The defense of Fort D," by Mark Bliss.

Carl Junction Jasper County Citizen January 12, 2005: "History Junction: 'The Notorious Lane Britton, Part 1,'" by John Durbin.

The Carthage Press November 10, 2004: "Original City hall converted into municipal fire-house," by Marvin VanGilder.

Columbia Daily Tribune January 2, 2005: "Hickman family took root in county with move to Missouri in early 1800s." January 9: "Younger [David H.] Hickman was influential local leader." January 16: "Along with successes, tragedy hit [David H.] Hickman." This and above arti­ cles by Harold M. Lynch. January 21: "Tigers' humble trailblazer," Alfred Abram, by Steve Walentik. January 23: "[David H.] Hickman's legacy lives on at local high school," by Harold M. Lynch.

Columbia Missourian November 11, 2004: "Salvaging histoiy: 114-year-old Easley Store will reopen as part of a tourist attraction in Nifong Park," by David Shay.

Doniphan The Prospect-News November 17, 2004: "Our Family And Pine School," by Genell (Miller) Wilson; "Files From 1919-1956 Reveal Pine School History"; "Pine School Is Remembered," by Delia Drane, reprinted; "The Legacy Of The Riverways: The Ozark National Scenic Riverways Turns 40," Missouri History in Newspapers 263 by Jeff Joiner; "Descriptive and Biographical: Ripley County, Missouri: Resources, Industries, And People"; " 100 Years Of Chiropractic Service To The Community," Ripley County; "School Days In The Wild Woods At The Turn Of The Century," Pine and Wild Cat Schools, Ripley County, by Sally Gibson Hufstedler, reprinted; "Roots Run Deep At First Baptist Church," by Marilyn Joplin; "The Old Ponder Mill, Once A Thriving Business, Now A Memory," by Hazel Ponder, reprinted; "News From Ponder," history of Shirley School, by Betty Murdock; "Rock Fellowship Church," Oxly, by Pat Hipp.

The Elsbeny Democrat November 10, 2004: "History of Elsberry United Methodist Church," by Mrs. C. B. Lindsay and Joyce A. Ross.

Fulton Sun November 11, 2004: "Historical find uncovered in time for Veteran's Day: WWII letters tell story of community support," excerpts from letters included, by Brandi Schubert.

Hannibal Courier-Post January 15, 2005: "Langston Hughes: A legacy to the black culture in America," by Margie Clark; "After the Civil War, a new educational institution [Lincoln University] was born," by Don Krause.

Hermitage Index December 8, 2004: "Hermitage Baptist began in 1896," by Fran Baldwin.

Humansville Star Leader December 10, 2004: "Humansville's history comes alive through 1929 Star Leader story," reprint of "Early History of Humansville."

Jefferson City Post-Tribune December 7, 2004: "Missouri's [Thomas Hart] Benton: [Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio State Historic] site offers unique mural of the artist," Kansas City, by Kris Hilgedick.

Kansas City Press Dispatch December 8, 2004: "Barry: now a road, once a thriving settlement," Platte County, by David Knopf.

Kansas City Star January 14, 2005: "From Phog Allen to 1,400 wins: 100 years of [William] Chrisman [High School] hoops," Independence, by Sam Mellinger.

Linn Unterrified Democrat December 1, 2004: "Osage County Century Farm: Crystal Springs Farm continues [Franz and Francisca] Samson legacy," by Allen Messick.

Maryvilte Daily Forum November 26, 2004: "Birthday was this week for native son [Dale Carnegie]," by Matt Kelsey. 264 Missouri Historical Review

Monett Times December 23, 2004: "Contractor M. E. Gillioz's annual party brightened [Christmas] hol­ iday for Monett kids," by Susan Kuhl.

Nevada Daily Mail December 23, 2004: "Christmas [in Vernon County] has changed little through the years"; "Continuing the story of the Dalys," by Carolyn Gray Thornton.

Rich Hill Mining Review December 9,2004: "The Big Ditch: Genealogy research leads to local history," Marais des Cygnes drainage district, Bates County, by Caroline Marsh Johnson House.

Rock Port Atchison County Mail January 13, 2005: "Brownville Christian Church celebrates 150th anniversary."

Rogersville South County Mail November 21, 2004: "Civil War veteran [Lafayette Stone] receives proper grave marker - 75 years later," by Mike Cullinan.

St. Clair Franklin County Watchman December 6, 2004: "Franklin County History: Franklin County Parochial Schools 1927, 1928." December 13: "Franklin County History: Early Funeral Business"; "Louis Reese." December 20: "Franklin County History: A Womanless Wedding"; "Missouri River Bridge at Washington"; "Immaculate Conception Church and School," Union. December 27: "1927 Franklin County History: Rural School News," Catawissa, Bend, and Pleasant Valley Schools; "Franklin County History: Anderson James Coleman, Area Pioneer and Confederate Soldier." January 3, 2005: "Franklin County History: William Jones, James A. Woodruff"; "Otto- Miller Funeral Home," Washington; "W. L. Cole, Educator, Attorney, and Politician"; "Teacher [William Jones] Charged With Whipping an Angel"; "Van Buren Jones - Early Settler." January 10: "1927 Franklin County History: St. Clair School District, St. Clair Elementary School, St. Clair High School"; "Mining in 1888." January 17: "Franklin County History: St. John's Evangelical Church at Casco"; "Great Army of the Republic - 1888"; "House for Sale in Union - 1888." These and above articles by Sue Blesi. iSC. Louis Review January 7, 2005: "St. Simon of Cyrene Catholic Parish To Close," by Barbara Watkins.

Trenton Republican-Times December 13, 2004: "[William Preston] Thompson House Is Part Of Grundy County History," by Ted Druckenmiller.

Washington Missourian November 24, 2004: "Remembering 'The Other Busch Brewery,'" Washington Brewery, by Karen Cernich. January 15, 2005: "Historical Hometown: Ghost Towns: La Charrette." January 19: "Franklin County's History As Being a 'Door to the West' Should Be Preserved," by Ralph Gregory. 265

MISSOURI HISTORY IN MAGAZINES

The Adair Historian, Adair County Historical Society Fall 2004: "Marjorie Kieborz Heinike: Grasshoppers and Drought Drove Us to Kirksville," interview with Heinike, by Pat Ellebracht.

The Blue and Grey Chronicle December 2004: "Lafayette County men [Stephen Dudley, LysanderN. Oliver, William L. Yancy, and Wilson M. Damron] and the Battle of Milford, Missouri," by Brian D. Kelling; "First Murder of a Law Officer in Jackson County, Sheriff Henry Bugler," reprinted; "Conscripted by [Sterling] Price," letter written by Marshall Arnold, and "Bates County, April 1865," letter to Thomas C. Fletcher from Roland Atkinson, by Wayne Schnetzer; '"A Most Disgraceful Thing': The Confederates Capture Bloomfield in 1862," by James E. McGhee; "The Return of Money Stolen at Lexington," letters written by Robert Ault, by Wayne Schnetzer. February 2005: "Wild Times in Old Lake City," by Joanne Chiles Eakin; "Defense of Gen. Sterling Price"; "Father [Dennis] Kennedy's Civil War Scare"; "A Spy for George Todd" and "Please President Lincoln Let Me Return to Independence," by Wayne Schnetzer; "To the Citizens of Buchanan and Platte Counties: A Message to Leave," by Linda Lawrence.

The Broadcaster, Ozarks Resource Center Winter 2004: "Lessons From the Past: [Henry Rowe] Schoolcraft's Journey in the Deep Ozarks."

Bushwhacker Musings, Vernon County Historical Society Jan. 1, 2005: "Teenage Recollections from the Late 1930s and Early 1940s," by Joe C. Kraft; "A Hotel at Deerfield," by Collene Knowllton McLean.

Campbell House Courier, Campbell House Museum Fall 2004: "From the Museum Archives," Robert Campbell.

Collage Of Cape County, Cape Girardeau County Genealogical Society December 2004: "German Civil War Era Letter From Cape Girardeau"; "Slave Narratives: Emily Campster Green, Betty Brown."

DeKalb County Heritage January 2005: "Frost-Oberg Homemakers Extension Club (1935 - 1990) {continued}," by Velma Millard.

The Despatch, Recreated First U.S. Infantry and Boone's Rangers January/February 2005: "History of Lincoln County, Missouri," by Joseph A. Mudd, reprinted.

Gateway, Missouri Historical Society Fall 2004: "The Legacy of a Seer," Charles Gordone; "The Sporting Woman: Vagrancy and Women's Rights in Reconstraction-Era St. Louis," by Sharon Romeo; "You Can't Just Sit 266 Missouri Historical Review

Around and Mope: Mary Taussig Hall," by Molly Kodner; "Missouri Biography: The Legendary Wild Bill Hickok," by Larry Wood.

Grundy Gleanings Winter 2004: "The Great Old Houses of Spickard, Missouri," by Robert H. Wyatt; "The Story of Lewis Maple Hastings."

The Herald, Grand River Historical Society and Museum January 2005: "Continued Some History of the State Industrial Home for Girls," Chillicothe; "Rehoboth Farm: Its First 150 Years," Chillicothe, by Ruth Cochran Seiberling, reprinted.

History and Genealogy Research Letter, Daniel Boone and Frontier Families Research Association October 2004: "The History of Upper Louisiana (Present Missouri) - Part 1," by Ken Kamper.

Hoseline Histoiy, HST Independence 76 Fire Company December 2004: "The Origination of the Name 'Harry S. Truman Independence 76 Fire Company," by Rick Webb; " 150 Years of Fire Protection: Doing the Best They Could," by Jerry Hall, reprinted.

IlascoArea Newsletter, fiasco Area Preservation Society December 2004: "[Hannibal] Cement Plant Recollections," by Jack G. Munson.

Illuminations, Historical Society of University City September-November 2004: "Lupton Chapel."

The Independent, Kansas City's Weekly Journal of Society November 6, 2004: "Happy 90th Birthday!" Junior League of Kansas City.

Japan Notes, Japan America Society of St. Louis Oct./Nov./Dec. 2004: "World's Fair of 1904 and Tenshin Okakura's Speech."

Journal of the Douglas County Historical and Genealogical Society, Inc. Winter 2004: "1830s Pioneer Woman -AProbable History of Elizabeth 'Betsy' Hall" and "St. Nicholas Catholic Church - Where Art Thou?" Evans, by Kenneth Brown; "The Harnden House of Ava Square," by Jesse "Lyle" Jenkins; "Memories of the Ava Methodist Church," by Gaiy Kester.

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Autumn 2004: "Why Jim Does Not Escape to Illinois in Mark Twain's Adventures of Hucklebeny Finn," by James Tackach.

Landmarks Letter, Landmarks Association of St. Louis November/December 2004: Buster Brown Blue Ribbon Shoe Factory, 1526 North Jefferson Avenue. January/February 2005: Berea Presbyterian Church, 3010 Olive Street. Missouri Histoiy in Magazines 267

Lawrence County Historical Society Bulletin January 2005: "Place Names in Lawrence County," by Robert L. Ramsey; "Some History of Devil's Washpan [Fish Hatchery]," by Nolan Gunter.

Missouri Conservationist January 2005: "The Genesis of Conservation in Missouri," history of Missouri Department of Conservation, by Jim Low; "Missouri's First Botanists," Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, by Bruce Palmer.

Missouri Life December 2004: "War-Torn Holidays," Civil War, by Larry Wood. February 2005: "A Sense of Place: Uncover the Little-Known History of African- Americans in the Ozarks at this Ash Grove Museum," by Diana West; '"They Faltered Not': Missouri's Battle of Island Mound Was the First Civil War Combat for Any Black Regiment," Bates County, by Sean McLachlan.

Missouri Medical Review, Missouri School of Medicine Alumni Fall 2004: "White Wisdom: Learning From Our School's Oldest Living Alumnus [Charles White]," by Rich Gleba.

Missouri Messenger, Friends of Missouri Town January 2005: "Two Great Myths of Missouri Town 1855," by John Peterson.

The New Preservationist, Franklin County Historical Society January 30, 2005: "1872 to 1920 -Years For Interstate Connections," Boehm family, by Glen Blesi.

Newsletter, Carondelet Historical Society Fall/Winter 2004: "ABellerive Bungalow," 700 Bellerive.

Newsletter, Chariton County Historical Society and Museum Jan. 2005: "The Old Page School," first public school in St. Louis, by Jordan R. Bentley, reprinted; "Did You Know? Chariton County Boy [William Fullbright] Knighted by Queen Elizabeth."

Newsletter, Howard County Genealogical Society October 2004: "Another Fayette Killing," murder of James Leach, reprinted. November 2004: "Memoirs of Earlier Days in Big Spring Community, Haunted Bridge, Baptismal Hole, Working for WPA." December 2004: "Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church," New Franklin. January 2005: "Fayette Can Claim Three Governors: Governor John Miller, Governor Thomas Reynolds, Claiborne Fox Jackson."

Newsletter, Lincoln County Historical and Archaeological Society Winter 04-05: "Early History [Elsberry, 1673-1955]," by Clarence Cannon, reprinted. 268 Missouri Historical Review

Newsletter, Moniteau County Historical Society Winter 2004-2005: "My Uncle Tony [Anthony Louis Scheidt]," first draft of a chapter from forthcoming book, Art Simmons: Legendaiy Horseman of the 20th Century—A Daughter's Memories, by Jane Simmons.

Newsletter, Osage County Historical Society November 2004: "Small Town Business: Linn Drug Store."

Newsletter, St. Francois County Historical Society November 2004: "St. Francois County 1904."

Newsletter, Society of Architectural Historians, Missouri Valley Chaper Fall 2004: "The Architectural Career of Herbert C. Chivers in St. Louis," by David J. Simmons. Winter 2004: "Harvey Ellis in St. Joseph, Missouri," by Robert A. Myers.

Newsletter, Washington Historical Society December 2004: "Washington in 1904."

North Central News, North Central Columbia Neighborhood Association Fall 2004: "Hamilton-Brown building [1123 Wilkes Boulevard] to live on and bring new life to North Central Columbia," by Pat Wilson.

Novinger Renewal News November 2004: "Wildcat Tales: The History of Novinger High School Wildcat Basketball, Part 9," by Danny Ellsworth.

Old Mill Run, Ozark County Genealogical and Historical Society October 2004: "David Oliver Wallace"; "James Cosby Wallace."

Our Clay Heritage Winter 2004: '"As I Remember Clay County In 1865-66,'" letter written by O. W Williams in 1925, provided by Harley Wyatt Jr.

Ozar'kin, Ozarks Genealogical Society Winter 2004: "Springfield's O'Reilly General Army Hospital 1941-1946," by John Rutherford.

Ozark Happenings Newsletter, Texas County Missouri Genealogical and Historical Society Oct/Nov/Dec 2004: "Caylortown - A Journey Into the Past," by Homer Harrison Vandivort, reprinted.

Ozarks Mountaineer November 2004: "C. C. Williford [former Ozarks weatherman]: He Lies No More," by Dianne Peck; "Ozarks Folksongs: 'Theme' Keeps This Song In The Repertoire," song "Just Plain Folks" written by Maurice Stonehill, by Bill McNeil. December 2004: "Memories of The Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad," by David N. Motherwell. Missouri Histoiy in Magazines 269

Patrol News, Missouri State Highway Patrol September/October 2004: "Recollections: Patrol Responds To 1954 [Missouri State Penitentiary] Prison Riot," Jefferson City, by Cheryl D. Cobb.

The Pike Co. Mo. Echo, Pike County Genealogical Society Fall 2004: "Biographical Sketch [Levi S. Moore]."

The Record, Friends of the Missouri State Archives Fall 2004: "Picture This," Charles Elliot Gill, amateur photographer, by Laura R. Jolley.

Ridgerunner, West Plains High School Fall 2004: "Wilson Creek," by Katie VonAllmen; "The Timber Boom in the Ozarks," by Trent Willisma; "The [West Plains Town] Square From Square One," by Christopher Campbell; "Robert Hays: Traveler Extraordinaire," by Amanda Hays; "Fruit Growing in Southern Missouri," Pomona, Olden, Koshkonong, Brandsville, Fruitville, and Poppitz Orchards, by Katy Emerson; "Hootin 'NHollarin [Festival]," Gainesville, byKyrie Leaf; "Louis J. Bozman," by Zach Smith; "The [West Plains Town] Square Affair: Part One," by Chance Bone.

River Hills Traveler December 2004: "Christmas programs in one-room schools [in the Current River Hills]," by Jim Featherston; "Traveling into history: [M. Jeff Thompson] Swamp Fox's men disperse, form new military units," by Jim and Donna Featherston; "Our Indian heritage: How Indians hunted deer, buffalo in winter," by Kathleen Brotherton. Jan/Feb 2005: "Traveling into history: Moses Austin brings American mining to the Ozarks," by Jim and Donna Featherston.

Rural Missouri December 2004: "John Colter: Missouri's Mountain Man," by Jim McCarty. January 2005: "When the great mule market crashed," by Martin Northway. Febraary 2005: "A Life in Pictures," Charles Gill, by Bob McEowen.

St. Charles County Heritage January 2005: "St. Charles High School Building Celebrates 80th Anniversary in 2004," by Dennis J. Hahn; "Courtship in the Gay Nineties," by Robert M. Sandfort; "Main Street Celebration Week," by Cleta Flynn; "St. Charles Day at the [1904] World's Fair," by Bill Popp.

St. Louis Lawyer December 1, 2004: "[Bryan] Mullanphy's Will," by Ted Agniel; "The 1855 [Bob] O'Blenis Murder Trial," by Marshall D. Hier; "The Bar to Freedom: Slave Suits in Antebellum St. Louis," by Kenneth H. Winn.

The Secessionist, Missouri Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans November 2004: "The Infamous Alsup Gang" and "Rufus Phillips" by Robert Caudle. December 2004: "Lafayette and Nancy Campbell"; "James H. McBride"; "Henry Conway 'Conn' Shaver." January 2005: "Jeremiah and Hulda Jane (Brasher) Crider"; "Julian S. Frazier"; "Friley Washington Moore"; "Mansfield Proctor." 270 Missouri Historical Review

Show Me Route 66 Fall 2004: "Cobras on Route 66??" Springfield, by Robert H. Gibbons.

Springfield! Magazine November 2004: "Springfield's Unseen World (Part II)," Springfield Underground, by Sherlu R. Walpole; "Queen City History (Part LXXXI): Springfield City Council Honors Old Airport As Historic Landmark on January 9, 1980," by Robert C. Glazier. December 2004: "Springfield's Unseen World (Part Iff): The Great Quarry Fire of 1973- 1983," by Sherlu R. Walpole; "Queen City History (Part LXXXII): League Baseball Came Here in 1887," by Robert C. Glazier. January 2005: "Queen City History (Part LXXXIII): Washington Avenue Baptist Church Becomes First Landmark to Move!"

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis Historical and Technical Society Summer 2004: Special issue celebrating 115 years of terminal railroad histoiy.

Toward The Setting Sun, Missouri Conference, United Methodist Church Fall 2004: Articles on the history of Central Methodist University in Fayette.

The Trail Scout, Friends of the National Frontier Trails Museum November 2004: "Account of Jim Bridger as a Peacemaker," a letter by A. H. Owens, reprinted.

Waterways Journal Weekly November 8, 2004: "Sun Sets Over Golden Eagle River Museum," St. Louis, by Jack R. Simpson.

Wltistle Stop, Harry S. Truman Library Institute Fall 2004: "The Place Where All Men Strive To Be," Harry S. Truman on the eve of the 1934 Senate campaign, by Randy Sowell.

The Secrets in Kansas Soil

Parkville Platte County World, January 3, 1901

Nearly every town in Kansas is going or has gone half daft over the sugar excitement and intends to have a few mills immediately or sooner. Kansas never does anything by halves; it is always both feet and neck or nothing. Such towns as have escaped the saccharine epidemic are busy tunneling into the bowels of the earth for coal, salt, natural gas, petroleum, buried cities, and other bric-a-brac, and one spot of the county near Girard somewhere swears by its father's bears that it has struck a rich vein of condensed milk, while in the northwest a shaft is being sunk in search of shoe blacking. The Bender family, the Star Route trials, Stewart's body, Charley Ross, Ignatius Donnelly's cryptogram, the secret of the grave, and Harrison's cabinet pale into insignif­ icance as mysteries when placed in the balance beside the contents of Kansas soil. 271

GRADUATE THESES RELATING TO MISSOURI HISTORY, 2004

St. Louis University Doctoral Dissertation

Jack, Bryan, "Bridging the Red Sea: The St. Louis African-American Community and the Exodusters of 1879."

Southwest Missouri State University Master's Thesis

Aton, Rusty D., "It Comes and It Goes: The History of Professional Baseball in Springfield, Missouri: 1887-1950."

University of Missouri-Columbia Doctoral Dissertations

Jackson, Cathy, "The Making of an American Outlaw Hero: Jesse James, Folklore, and Late Nineteenth-Century Print Media."

Neely, Jeremy, "Divided in the Middle: A Histoiy of the Kansas-Missouri Border, 1854-1896."

Reese, DeAnna, "African-American Women, Civic Activism, and Community Building Strategies in St. Louis, Missouri, 1900-1954."

Taylor, Jon, "When a Presidential Neighborhood Enters History: Community Change, Competing Histories, and Creative Tension in Independence, Missouri."

University of Missouri-Kansas City Master's Thesis

McDade, Carrie Leah, "The Discourse of Identity: John La Farge's Stained Glass Windows for Congregation B'nai Jehudah, Kansas City, Missouri."

Doctoral Dissertations

Baumli, Joseph Walden, "Prairie Trails, Iron Rails, and Tall Tales: The Settling, Town Building, and People of Nodaway County, Missouri, 1839-1910." Dohrman, Dean A., "The Trading Regime, Power, and Interdependence: A Case Study of Pettis County, Missouri." 2 72 Missouri Historical Review

University of Missouri-St. Louis Master's Thesis

Barnett, Robert M., "Jesus Among the Middle Waters: American Christian Missionaries and the Osage Nation, 1820-1920."

Washington University Master's Theses

Branstrom, Mary Reid, "Serra in St. Louis: From Twain to Joe."

Kenny, Sharon, "Tiffany's Chapels in the St. Louis New Cathedral."

Society Will Host Paul Nagel Talk and Reception

On April 22 at 4:00 p.m., historian and author Paul Nagel will talk about his new book, George Caleb Bingham: Missouri's Famed Painter and Forgotten Politician, in the Society's Art Gallery. A brief presentation by art historian and gallery owner Fred Kline about his research into the attribution of the painting Horse Thief to Bingham will follow. The painting will be on display as part of a new Society exhibition organized by Nagel, George Caleb Bingham: The Artist and His World, in the Bingham room of the Art Gallery. The event is free and open to the public. Nagel, a native of Independence, was formerly vice president of academic affairs for the University of Missouri system as well as a professor of histoiy at the Columbia cam­ pus. He is a contributing editor for American Heritage magazine and has authored a num­ ber of books, including Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family, Hie Adams Women: Abigail and Louisa Adams, Their Sisters and Daughters, John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, A Private Life, and the award-winning Missouri: A History. In 1990 he contributed the introductory essay to a book published to celebrate the exhibition George Caleb Bingham organized by the St. Louis Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. In 2002 he returned to the history of his home state by pub­ lishing The German Migration to Missouri: My Family s Stoiy. In his most recent work, Nagel not only reviews Bingham's artistic success but also emphasizes the artist's career as a public official who served in the state legislature, as state treasurer, and as Missouri's adjutant general. 273

BOOK REVIEWS

Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition. By W. Raymond Wood (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003). xvii + 234 pp. Illustrations. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $34.95.

As the loud huzzahs uttered in observance of the two-hundredth anniver­ sary of Lewis and Clark's westward trek reverberate around us, W. Raymond Wood's latest book, Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition, provides a timely reminder that the Corps of Discovery was not the first exploratory venture organized for the purpose of penetrating North America's vast western expanses. Wood, a preeminent northern plains archae­ ologist and authority on the mapping of the Missouri River, draws from the dis­ ciplines of anthropology, geography, and histoiy to recreate the story of the largely unheralded Missouri River expedition of James Mackay and John Evans. Then mission, conducted under the auspices of the Missouri Company, was designed to extend Spanish trading operations farther up the Missouri and to secure Spain's territorial claims along the river's upper reaches. When Mackay accepted the assignment, he was no stranger to the North American wilds. In the 1770s, he left his native Scotland and headed to Canada, where he hired on with the British North West Company. In suc­ ceeding years he traversed the Canadian wilderness trafficking in furs for var­ ious British firms while becoming acquainted with numerous western tribes. The ambitious trader traveled to the United States, where he struck up an acquaintance with representatives of the Spanish government who provided him with an introduction to officials in St. Louis. Mackay took up residence there in the early 1790s, became a Spanish subject, agreed to lead the Missouri expedition, and enlisted the services of Evans, a dreamy-eyed Welshman whose quixotic quest for the descendants of his mythical country­ man Prince Madoc had brought him to North America. An unlikely pair to lead a Spanish expedition, they headed up the Missouri in the fall of 1795. In present-day northeastern Nebraska, Mackay constructed a trading post that he named Fort Charles. Evans continued upriver to the Mandan villages, occupied a British trading establishment, and briefly raised the royal Spanish banner before retreating downriver. Plans for claiming the prize that Spanish authorities offered as a reward to the first of their explorers to travel overland to the Pacific had to be abandoned, and the adventurers soon withdrew from the trading posts they had established on the Missouri. Despite those disappointments, Governor General Manuel Gayoso de Lemos proclaimed them "the two most famous travelers of the northern countries of this continent" (p. 152). Mackay and Evans left an enduring legacy in the form of their maps and journals—documents that Lewis and 274 Missouri Historical Review

Clark employed to guide themselves during the first leg of their celebrated journey. Wood relies heavily upon maps and charts to fill in details of the Mackay and Evans sojourn, and his careful analysis of early cartographic records more than justifies the addition of this volume to any Lewis and Clark bookshelf. But Prologue to Lewis and Clark offers so much more. The author uses his extensive knowledge of the cultures of the Indian people along the Missouri River to introduce the various tribes that Mackay and Evans encountered and to skillfully recreate the worlds they inhabited. Especially valuable is his artful explication of Indian commercial networks and trading practices. The travels of Mackay and Evans constitute an important chapter in the larger story of the American West, and anyone with an interest in American exploration, Missouri River tribal peoples, and pre-statehood Missouri will not want to miss this fine book.

Central Missouri State University William E. Foley

Daniel Boone: An American Life. By Michael A. Lofaro (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003). xv + 216 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $25.00.

Daniel Boone epitomizes the frontier people. He is perceived as a man of action, reason, and courage whose initiative, hard work, and independence mirrored frontier culture. Boone was a multifaceted man. He served as a rep­ resentative in the Virginia State Assembly and held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the militia, as well as positions as sheriff and surveyor, among other occupations. Boone roamed the forests far beyond the settlements, claimed land, hunted and trapped, and negotiated with the British and Shawnees. His contemporaries considered him a leader. Today, few students of American history know that Boone had incredibly bad luck. He lost a fortune in land because his surveying and paperwork abil­ ities proved less than precise and efficient. Creditors hounded him through­ out his adult life. Some residents of Boonesborough accused him of betray­ al to the British and Shawnees. Indians killed two of his sons, and he lost other children to disease. Success at farming always eluded him. Boone teetered on the edge of failure during most of his paradoxical life. He loved the wilderness but exploited it, he acquired great wealth in land but lost it, and he hated towns but encouraged settlements. Above all, Boone persevered, and people recognized his name then and now, often for the same reasons. Boone made his last move west in 1799 and settled in the Femme Osage countiy about sixty miles west of St. Louis. He brought friends and family with him and received 1,000 arpents of land (about 850 acres) from Spanish officials in St. Louis, who hoped these and other Americans would help block Book Reviews 275

British designs on the territory from Canada. At the age of sixty-five, his ability to claim and sell land had not improved, but the forests and streams of Missouri beckoned him to pursue the life he knew best. Almost until the day he died, Boone hunted and trapped and considered the Missouri country a rich and beautiful land. Much has been written about Daniel Boone. Even during his lifetime, writers cast his life in myth rather than reality. Although scholars have writ­ ten voluminously about him, Michael A. Lofaro has written the most read­ able, succinct, and useable biography about Daniel Boone. Lofaro traces Boone's life from his birth in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1734 until his death in St. Charles County, Missouri, in 1820. He follows Boone to North Carolina and into Kentucky, tracks him through a host of difficulties with the Indians, and trails him to Missouri. The result is a revision of his previous biography of Boone, The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone (1978). Although Lofaro's use of the term frontier is dated, and while the text is nei­ ther documented nor the narrative always precise in factual description, this biography is the one book to read about Daniel Boone. It is well written, solidly researched, and briskly paced. This biography is a pleasure to read.

Purdue University R. Douglas Hurt

Searching for Jim: Slaveiy in Sam Clemens's World. By Terrell Dempsey (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003). xvii + 316 pp. Illustrations. Map. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. $44.95.

As a resident of Hannibal, Missouri, Ten-ell Dempsey wrote Searching for Jim surrounded by the commercialized Mark Twain. Offended by the removal of Twain's fictional slave, Jim, from the town's Mark Twain stoiy, Dempsey presents a detailed account of slavery in Sam Clemens's world to set the record straight. Dempsey leaves no doubt that Sam Clemens grew up in a militantly proslavery environment. In the late 1830s, when the Clemens family settled in Hannibal, they owned one slave woman (earlier, when they had resided in Tennessee, they owned as many as six slaves). Within a few years, Sam Clemens's father, John Marshall Clemens, sold the woman to a local trader. He did so to raise money: the elder Clemens remained a vigorous defender of slavery and the coercion needed to maintain it. In 1841, Missouri prosecut­ ed three abolitionists arrested in Marion County, and John Clemens served on the jury. (Interestingly, Samuel T. Glover, assisted by Uriel Wright, served as defense attorney in this case. Glover and Wright later moved to St. Louis where Glover joined forces with Unconditional Unionists in the secession cri­ sis and Wright joined Sterling Price to fight with the Confederacy.) The jury sentenced the abolitionists to twelve years in prison. Clemens's role in the 2 76 Missouri Historical Review verdict helped him win election as justice of the peace in the fall of 1842. In his new office, Judge Clemens ordered a punishment of twenty lashes for a slave caught carrying a knife. The harsh realities of slavery were ever-present as Sam Clemens grew up in Missouri. The Hannibal and St. Louis newspapers where he worked as a typesetter were filled with advertisements for runaway slaves (often described by the scars they bore from whippings) and notices offering to pur­ chase men, women, and children. That world shaped Sam Clemens's per­ ception of race and society. When he toured the Northeast as a young man and worked for a time in New York City, he wrote home (no doubt echoing his father's views) criticizing the liberties extended to blacks in the free states. In the secession crisis, Sam Clemens rode for a time with proseces- sionist members of the Missouri State Guard. The secession crisis proved to be the turning point: Clemens left Missouri and the Civil War and moved west to reinvent himself as Mark Twain. After the war, he married into a prominent New York family and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. Living in New England, Clemens created the fictional world of antebellum Hannibal. In one sense, Clemens had escaped the world of slav­ ery. At the same time, his experiences with slavery provided him with the material for his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Dempsey successfully identifies slaveiy as a powerful influence in Clemens's early life. Most scholars place the fictional slave, Jim, at the cen­ ter of Twain's literary achievement. One can hope that the directors of tourism in Hannibal follow Dempsey's advice and make Jim and Huck as central to their Mark Twain story as Becky and Tom.

University of Missouri-St. Louis Louis S. Gerteis

A Falling Out

Kansas City Sun, March 2, 1889 A newly married gentleman and lady, riding in a chaise, were unfortunately overturned. A person coming to their assistance observed that it was a very shocking sight. "Very shocking indeed," replied the gentleman, "to see a newly married couple fall out

From Kansas City to Centropolis

Kansas City Sun, March 2, 1889 Dr. Mumford wants the name of Kansas City changed to Centropolis. Might it not be wise to change Dr. Mumford's name also, to, say, "Vox et praetera nihil," which is Latin for "some­ thing very similar to Dennis." 277

BOOK NOTES

Historic Homes of Neosho. Compiled by Larry A. James (Neosho, MO: Newton County Historical Society, 2003). 180 pp. Illustrations. $25.00, cloth; $20.00, paper.

Before the Civil War, Neosho's population numbered only a few hun­ dred, most of whom lived in unremarkable log homes. After the war, the town began to grow, and residents built uniquely structured brick homes. This book is intended to preserve the memory of the town's historic homes, many of which are no longer standing or have been remodeled beyond recog­ nition. Black-and-white historical photos of the buildings form the bulk of the book. Scans of old plat maps and photos of past residents are also includ­ ed. To obtain Historic Homes of Neosho contact the Newton County Historical Society, PO Box 675, Neosho, MO 64850; (417) 451-4940.

Missouri Horses: Gift to a Nation (Volume One). By Joan Gilbert (Hallsville, MO: MoGho Books, 2003). 530 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. $25.00, paper.

Missouri has the third largest population of horses in the country, over 200,000, behind only two much larger states, Texas and California. Joan Gilbert describes in detail the history and contribution of the equine industry in the state. She also illustrates how horses have helped to shape Missouri's cultural landscape. To order this book contact MoGho Books, PO Box 200, Hallsville, MO 65255.

Barns of Missouri: Storehouses of History. By Howard Wight Marshall (Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co., 2003). 168 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. $34.95, plus $6.00 shipping.

In this volume, Marshall, a professor emeritus of art history and archae­ ology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, explores interesting and his­ toric barns in the state. The book includes hundreds of color pictures of bams along with an explanation of the background of various architectural styles and regional variations in bam structure. Barns of Missouri received the book of the year award from the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation in 2004. To purchase, write to Barns of Missouri, PO Box 1645, Jefferson City, MO 65102, or call (573) 635-6857, ext. 3423.

Ebbets to Veeck to Busch: Eight Owners Who Shaped Baseball. By Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W. Boxerman (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Co., 2003). 248 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. $29.95, paper, plus $4.00 shipping. 2 78 Missouri Historical Review

This book focuses on eight former owners of major league baseball teams who helped to shape the sport. Four of the people are former owners of Missouri teams: August Busch Jr., whose company, Anheuser Busch, owned the St. Louis Cardinals; Charles Finley, a self-made millionaire who owned the Athletics, a team based in Kansas City for seven seasons before moving to Oakland, California; Bill Veeck, who owned the St. Louis Browns for about three years, and Helene Britton, the first woman to own a major league team, who owned the St. Louis Cardinals from 1911 to 1917. Ebbets to Veeck to Busch can be ordered from McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640; (800) 253-2187; orwww.mcfarlandpub.com.

Beginning a Great Work: Washington University in St. Louis, 1853-2003. By Candace O'Connor (St. Louis: Washington University, 2003). 285 pp. Illustrations. Index. $44.95.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Washington University's founding in 1853, this chronology traces the university's development by focusing on the individuals who shaped it. Within the picture-laden chapters, especially important events, such as the university's role in the 1904 World's Fair and extraordinary medical breakthroughs by university doctors, are given special treatment in highlighted sections. The book can be ordered from the Washington University bookstore, online at www.wustl.bkstr.com.

Abuse and Murder on the Frontier: The Trials and Travels of Rebecca Hawkins: 1800-1860. By William B. Bundschu (Independence, MO: Little Blue Valley Publishing Co., 2003). 252 pp. Illustrations. Endnotes. Bibliography. Index. $25.00, plus $5.00 shipping. Missouri residents add $1.68 sales tax.

Rebecca Hawkins, a Missouri frontierswoman and mother of eight, endured physical abuse from her husband for years until she hired her neigh­ bor, Henry Garster, to murder him in 1838. Although Garster paid with his life for his part in the crime, the first legal hanging in Jackson County in 1839, Rebecca was eventually pardoned for her role in the killing. In this book, William Bundschu examines the legal histoiy and context of this case and studies the sinister life circumstances of women living on the frontier. The book can be acquired from Little Blue Valley Publishing Co., 3310 South Crysler Avenue, Independence, MO 64055.

Harry S. Truman: His Life and Times. By Brian Burnes (Kansas City, MO: Kansas City Star Books, 2003). 244 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. $34.95.

Drawing on the resources of the Truman Presidential Museum and the Kansas City Star, this richly illustrated biography of Harry Truman includes Book Notes 279

many handwritten memoirs by the president and the people closest to him as well as several rarely published photographs. The focus of this book falls heavily on Truman's personal life and his relationships with family, friends, politicians, and other prominent figures.

Historic Postcards from Old Kansas City. By Michael G. Bushnell (Leawood, KS: Leathers Publishing, 2004). 108 pp. Illustrations. $16.95, paper.

Michael Bushnell, publisher of The Northeast News, began running an article featuring a historic postcard of Kansas City in each issue when he and his wife acquired the paper in 1998. This book comprises four years worth of those articles. Each two-page spread includes a black-and-white postcard image, an overview of the pictured scene, information about its current sta­ tus, and a transcription of the message written on the back of the card.

The Streetcar Strike of 1916-17: "Scabs," Conspiracies, and Lawlessness in Springfield, Missouri. By Elijah L. Robison (Springfield, MO: Greene County Archives, 2004). 25 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. $1.00, paper, plus $.50 shipping.

This short narrative describes the events surrounding the Springfield streetcar strike of 1916, a pivotal event in the histoiy of labor unions in the region. Several violent incidents occurred during this strike of Traction Company car men, including the dynamiting of a streetcar and an attempted recall of J. J. Gideon, Springfield's seemingly prolabor mayor. The article was produced as a part of a class project at Southwest Missouri State University and can be purchased by contacting the Greene County Archives and Records Center, Office of the County Clerk, 1126 Boonville, Springfield, MO 65802, (417) 868-4021, or www.greenecountymo.org.

Missouri at Sea: Warships with Show-Me State Names. By Richard E. Schroeder (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2004). 161 pp. Illustrations. Index. $14.95, paper.

In Missouri at Sea, Richard Schroeder chronicles the ships named after the state, its cities, and residents. For each vessel, beginning with the first St. Louis in 1827 up through the present-day Jefferson City, Cole, and Hariy S. Truman, the author provides a brief history of the ship and explores its role in American history. The book is illustrated with black-and-white images from official U.S. government records and archives. 280 Missouri Historical Review

The Steamboat Idlewild, by Fred Geary Trace the Rivers of Missouri History The State Historical Society of Missouri collects, preserves, makes accessible, and publishes material relating to the histoiy of Missouri and the Middle West. Its extensive collections of books, newspapers, journals, maps, manuscripts, and photo­ graphs are open to the public. An art gallery features rotating exhibits with selected paintings by George Caleb Bingham and Thomas Hart Benton on permanent display. Memberships further the mission of the State Historical Society. They provide funds to purchase books, preserve newspapers, and publish materials. Each member receives annually four issues of the Missouri Historical Review and a quarterly newsletter. The State Historical Society is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization. Gifts of cash or property to the Society are deductible for federal income, estate, and gift tax purposes. For further information about gifts or bequests contact Gary R. Kremer, Executive Director.

Individual annual membership $20 (foreign, $30) Family annual membership $30 Contributing annual membership $50 Supporting annual membership $100 Sustaining annual membership $200-$499 Patron annual membership $500 or more Life membership $ 1,500

Memberships may be sent to State Historical Society of Missouri 1020 Lowry Street Columbia, MO 65201-7298 WITH PEN OR CRAYON ...

After watching the Allied armies daily roll deeper into Germany and learning of Adolf Hitler's death, St. Louis Post-Dispatch readers were not surprised by the May 7, 1945, headline: "Victory: Germany Surrenders." A subhead noted: "War With Japan Now Our Big Job." The headlines set the tone for the observance of Victory-in-Europe Day, which took place the next day upon President Harry S. Truman's early-morning radio announcement that Germany had surrendered at 2:41 a.m. on May 7 (7:41 p.m., May 6, St. Louis time). From St. Louis to Kansas City and Cape Girardeau to Kirksville, Missourians responded to the end of fighting in Europe by closing public schools, retail busi­ nesses, and offices. Schools that did not close held special programs. State and local governments asked taverns and package liquor stores to remain closed for twenty-four hours. Many government offices closed early, as did the meat-packing plants in Kansas City. War industry plants, however, remained open to continue the production of ordnance and military goods necessary for the continuing war in the Pacific. Some factories provided radios for workers to listen to Truman's address; the employees then returned to their jobs. Many municipalities held interfaith reli­ gious services or community programs of thanksgiving. Instead of the revelry that had followed the end of World War I in 1919, the Kansas City Star reported that "quiet joy, tinctured by the knowledge there still is another war to win, marked [the city's] reception" of the news about Germany's surrender. A Post-Dispatch reporter cited "the recent prison-camp horror revela­ tions" as one reason for the subdued observance of peace. One St. Louis bartender commented, "People just don't seem to be in a mood to celebrate. Apparently they don't feel the war is over." The war in the European theater had lasted five years, eight months, and six days; the Pacific conflict would continue for another four months and twenty-five days. This Daniel Fitzpatrick cartoon, recalling Winston Churchill's May 13, 1940, warning to the British Parliament of a protracted, costly war, appeared in the May 8, 1945, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. ifl f£3»2 ^s^r&W' o ^ x/i x/i *=- *° ^ u* _, hH ^Tl

r ^ o u;. i S 2